Phoenix Secrets
by Saiyan5Nine-tails
Summary: Secrets of family and friends kept from each other. The wearing down of bonds, and doubts between friends. For Isaac Alexander, this is all buliding up to a cataclysm, where the life he knew comes to an end, as a secret kept since his birth is revealed.
1. Prologue

Prologue

11 years ago...

_It was like every other time, where Isaac would expectantly wait for his mother to come home after hearing that she was coming back._

"_Is Mom going to be home soon," Isaac asked his father expectantly._

"_Yes Isaac," Harold told his son, "your mom will be back home soon. She just finished up some business in Japan, and-" he was cut off when the phone rang, and he picked it up._

"_Hello," Harold asked, wondering who could be calling at this time. "Gray," he said in interest at the caller, "is that you...? Why are you calling...?"_

_Harold had everything explained to him, and his eyes widened with disbelief. "Good lord," Harold said openly, slightly scaring Isaac, who grabbed his father's leg and asked: "Dad, what's wrong?"_

"_It's...nothing, Isaac," He lied. "Go up to your room, this is a private conversation."_

"_Does it have to do with Mom?"_

"_...I'll tell you later. Just go up to your room."_

_Isaac did as he was told reluctantly, and he went up the stairs, and Harold resumed conversation. Isaac waited in his room, until his father finally came upstairs._

"_Isaac," Harold said._

"_Yes, dad," Isaac said, expecting to hear the whole story._

"_...An...accident occurred at your mother's job, and...your mother won't be coming by for a few days."_

"_Is she all right," Isaac asked, his eyes shaking in fear, and the feeling came back; an unknown sense and feeling of energy, as it did whenever he experience intense worry, fear or anger lately._

"_...I hope she is."_

_-_

_A few days later, Olivia's SUV drove up to the driveway, with Harold and Isaac waiting expectantly. The door opened, and Harold cringed as he saw his wife's state of disrepair: her arms were wrapped up in bandages, and were still bleeding from the looks of them, and she was bandaged around other places as well, some which were still bleeding, but not as heavily as the arms. "MOM," Isaac screamed, running towards her as she stumbled from her injuries, but Harold grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him towards him._

"_Isaac, calm down," Harold said, and his feeling came back again., "calm down and go back inside."_

"_But Mom is-" Isaac yelled, tears coming from his eyes, but Harold interuppted him._

"_Is going to be all right," Harold told him, "now go back to the house, while I and my friend take care of your mother."_

_Isaac nodded weakly, and he ran back to the house, leaving a trail of tears as he went._

_-_

_Isaac had been intensely worried ever since his mother came back in her condition, and his dad wouldn't let him near his Mom's roon for the moment while he and his friend discussed, but that didn't stop him from listening in from the door. What he heard, he wished he didn't._

"_Sousuke Miyabe," Harold said angrily, "how did he become so monstrous?"_

"_I don't know," Gray said, "but I still can remember his demon red eyes and maniacal laugh as he tore through the Center personnel, injured Olivia, nearly killed Colin, and...my god, his own parents too. What kind of a person would do that to their own family, all to protect his little sister, Tatsuki?"_

_Isaac had heard enough to unnerve him, and left. **Mom wasn't in an acciden**t, he thought to himself, as he sat on his bed, **someone tried to murder her**. **Miyabe...I won't forget that name ever.**_

_-_

_Seeing his father and his friend gone from the room, Isaac quietly snuck down to his mother's room, and opened the door. "M-mom," he said weakly, waking up his mother._

"_Hello Isaac," she said, noticing her son in the room. _

"_Are...are you all right?"_

"_Of course I am," Oli said encouragingly to her son, "I just need some rest."_

"_Miyabe...," Isaac said angrily, "this Sousuke Miyabe tried to kill you and Uncle Colin, didn't he?!"_

_Olivia simply looked at her son in shock. Was he listening in all that time? Or did he only hear the part about the people Sousuke killed?_

"_I...I don't want Uncle Colin to die," he cried, as he snuggled up to his mother's side, "and I hate seeing you like this."_

"_Colin won't die," Olivia said, putting an arm around her son, "and I'll be better soon."_

"_Please stay Mommy," Isaac begged, "I don't want you to get hurt again. Don't go back to Japan."_

_Olivia whimpered a little as well; it was the first time in a while that Isaac called her Mommy. It brought back fond memories of when Isaac was younger, and was always excited to see her home again. She ruffled her son's silver hair, and smiled. "Isaac...do you mind if you sleep with me tonight? I need the company."_

_Isaac nodded, and he soon fell asleep by his mother's side._

_-_

_Over the next few weeks, his mother got better, and she left back for work, and Colin came by later, who had succeeded in surviving his ordeal, and visited Isaac to tell him that he was all right. However, his father was left to deal with another problem: Isaac's nightmares._

_It began the night after his mother left, and his father decided to keep an eye on him as he slept, as he suspected that what his wife went through may have left a sort of psychological impact on Isaac. Unfortunately, he was right, as at some point around ten o'clock, Isaac started to toss and turn, which was unusual for him, being such a sound sleeper. He immediately went to his son's side, and felt his temperature. His temperature was sky-rocketing, and Harold could have sworn he was starting to sweat, and Isaac felt that feeling coming back, even stronger than before._

_Before it could grow stronger, his body snapped up like a jackknife, as he screamed: "MOM!"_

_Shortly afterwards, Isaac began to cry, and Harold walked over, and sat down on the bed, putting his arms around Isaac as he did so. _

"_It's okay Isaac," Harold said to him, "it was just a nightmare. It never happened. It never happened."_

"_Don't leave me, Mom." Isaac whimpered to no one in particular. "Don't die...don't die."_

_Harold now understood his son's distress, and did his best to comfort his son._

_-_

_A while later, Harold woke up again with bags under his eyes, as lately, he had been dealing with Isaac's continuous nightmares night after night. He didn't suspect though, how much it would alter his life._

"_How are you doing Isaac," Harold asked his son, who simply stared down at his cereal._

"_...Not fine at all," Isaac said, placing his face in his hands, "those nightmares...no matter how many time you tell me it is just a nightmare, they just keep on coming back the next night."_

"_Look Isaac," Harold said, "we were hoping you wouldn't hear about Sousuke, and-" he was interrupted when all of a sudden, the door was blown off its hinges._

"_What the-" Isaac yelled, but his father appeared at his side in moments, and took him out of the chair, and hid him nearby. "Dad, what's going on?!"_

"_I don't know," Harold said, "But stay in here, and don't come out!"_

_Saying so, his father closed the door to the closet, leaving him in the dark. _

_-_

_After a few minutes of silence, Isaac heard the blast of something being shot, and his father's scream as wood broke, but he listened to his dad, and hid in the closet, forced to hear the conflict outside, as flashes of energies came through the door. Dad, he thought scared, what's happening out there, and why are these men after you?_

_He hid in the closet for five minutes, and everything went quiet._

_Whatever light was coming from the crack, was immediately obscured, as a shape opened the door, and Isaac found himself staring into gold, unfeeling eyes, with evidence of bleeding. "There you are."_

_Isaac tried to struggle, but the man grabbed Isaac by the throat, lifted him up, and tossed him to the ground, where he saw his father battered and bleeding, and memories of his mother's condition surfaced, and his breathing quickened._

"_ISAAC," Harold yelled, and he ran to his son, only to be knocked back by another man in an armoured suit._

"_It's too late Harold," the other man said, who took his helmet off, showing shadow black hair. "You have been outmatched from the start. Unlike you, we are unafraid of severely wounding our opponents."_

_In response, the older hit Isaac across the face, who stumbled over and started to bleed from the blow, and tears ran down his face from the pain.._

"_BASTARD!" Harold roared, and forced the second agent out of the way, only to find that the first had a gun pointed squarely at Harold._

"_Too slow," the man stated, and he blew a hole through Harold's shoulder, forcing him onto the ground._

_-_

_Isaac could only look on helplessly as the bullet tore through his father's shoulder, and he fell to the ground as his blood splattered across Isaac's face. He couldn't explain it: he was in a firey trance of rage, as all of the events that have happened played through his mind. First, Sousuke nearly killed his mother and Colin; the nightmares night after night; and now his father was bleeding, with a hole through his shoulder, barely alive. The two men stood over him, and the one who shot Isaac's father pointed the gun down again, prepping to end his life. Isaac snapped, the image of a white and black phoenix flashed in his mind, and he blacked out._

_-_

_But just as he blacked out, something unexpected happened; his sight came back again, and he was screaming fiercely, and a bright light seemed to glow from him, blinding his father, and the two men in black. When everything cleared, something seemed different about himself. For one, he felt something he never felt before...power; raw, uncorrupted, and absolute power. Suddenly he didn't feel fear anymore...only anger; pure, controlled anger, directed at the men who dared to hurt his father._

"_What the...!!" The first man said, pointing his gun at Isaac. "This kid...this monster...he's finally come to."_

_He didn't understand why they called him a monster. Frankly, he didn't care. "Isaac, run!" Harold shouted._

_Isaac simply glared at his father, and said: "No. Not this time. I won't have anyone hurt those I care about get away with it."_

_His father was put off; the tone his son used was frigid and cold. He wasn't scared at all, and he showed no emotion on his face as he stared back at the armoured man with the gun._

"_Don't look at me freak!" And he fired._

_The response was instantaneous, as the blue energy formed a semi-barrier directly in the path of the bullet, and it disintegrated instantly._

"_Is that all?" Isaac said coldly. Isaac focused his mind, and immediately, a blue arc of electromagnetic energy lashed out from...and sliced the man's arm clean off from the shoulder, and the arm fell dead to the ground with the gun, as the man screamed in pain. _

-

Isaac jack-knifed out of bed, gasping for breath, and his wound acted up again, forcing him back down. _The dream, _Isaac thought, _it is almost like the one I used to have as a kid. The first time around, it only involved mother, but after that incident with those men in black armour, it began to include my dad. But now it is different; that scene at the end...I have no recollection of it all, but it felt so real. Why? Why is this happening night after night? _Hoping to think more about it later, he went to sleep again.

_-_

Unbeknownst to Isaac, his father was watching right outside of his room with Olivia. For the past few nights, Harold had been sensing Isaac's power rise and fall night after night, and finally decided to see what it was. As he had feared, somehow his nightmare had resurfaced, and with now came a resurgence of his power. Not enough to affect his surroundings, but enough to trigger the signs of power: obsidian hair, and ruby red eyes.

"And this has been happening for the past few nights now," Olivia asked her husband in concern.

"...Yes," Harold said in regret, "and this time, we won't be able to hide it much longer."

"So the rising power," a voice called out, "it has been Isaac."

Harold and Olivia turned around to find a Japanese girl shorter than Isaac, having a near polar appearance to Isaac, with shadow black hair and mahogany eyes, which sometimes looked like an ominous red. Harold knew that Tatsuki was coming, due to sensing her approach, so he was prepared to explain.

"Yes, it has been. I don't know how, but the unsealing of his power seems to have sparked his nightmares again. I'm not sure, but his nightmares always seemed to cut off at a scene where the two of us are dead. But this time...I'm not sure. When his power first manifested, he used it to cut a Black Ops agent's arm clean off from the shoulder, and he blacked out with no memory of it. I wonder now...if he's remembering that through the dream, and that is causing the change?"

"Maybe," Tatsuki reasoned.

"We made sure he didn't remember," Olivia told Tatsuki, "and we sealed the ability away, to guarantee it, so that he could live a normal life. But now that it is starting to re-manifest, it won't be long until he finds out about it."

"I just hope that it doesn't ocurr in a similar situation to when he was six," Harold said in concern. "As a child, he just managed to cut off a man's arm. Now that he's seventeen...he's as powerful as Sousuke, and if that power is let loose...who knows what could happen."


	2. Return to Torrington

Return to Torrington

"Thank you for tending to my injuries," Isaac said, as Tatsuki sat beside him, her power mending his wounds, "There won't be any troubles for me when I get back to Torringtion."

Tatsuki simply smiled; after returning to Osaka, she decided to come back to Isaac's house, and help Isaac to heal quicker using her ability. She wasn't used to healing such major injuries, due to her Hemaphobia, so with periodic visits, as the doctor had predicted, Isaac would be walking around within two weeks as if _almost _nothing happened. He'd still have to make sure not to push himself too much, unless he ran the risk of re-opening the wound.

However, Isaac began to notice something...different about himself. The first time Tatsuki came for one of their sessions, he could tell that she had arrived the _instant _she stepped through the portal, and he was upstairs when it happened. Tatsuki remembered the smile she saw on Isaac's face: he was just sitting there, expecting her, and he didn't even know a session was scheduled for that day.

_What's going on with me?_ Isaac thought. _I haven't felt this feeling since...well, before the Black Ops attacked me and Dad back then. A feeling of...power and energy. And now, I can tell whenever Tatsuki arrives at the house for our sessions. I should ask Dad about this someday._

"Well," Tatsuki said, "we can't have you returning to Torrington struggling to even walk, and with such a severe injury nonetheless. We don't want Diana to find out about what happened."

"I hate keeping secrets from her," Isaac said, referring to Diana and his involvement in the Red Monarch mission, "it reminds me of how Mom and Dad kept secrets from me."

Tatsuki diverted her eyes, and briefly stopped healing. She wasn't surprised by this: she knew how M.O.M had the Center kept secret from Isaac ever since he was a child, and even his own power. Tatsuki felt guilty, as she was now among the people keeping secrets from him. She resumed healing.

"Well, people sometimes keep secrets, because the truth is painful."

"...I know," Isaac admitted, "since Diana was devastated by what happened, and if she remembered...who knows how she'll react."

"I'm sure you'll make it work somehow," Tatsuki said, and smiled, sparing a look into Isaac eyes, "the same way it worked between us."

Isaac smiled; before he arrived at Torrington, he became best friends with Tatsuki, and to an extent, something more. They had both suffered from the actions of her brother, and Algernon's plots. Even though Tatsuki would heal him, the scars would remain. He closed his eyes, and remembered when he tried to confront Sousuke himself, and was slashed diagonally from the left shoulder down to his waist in the ensuing, brief fight when he tried to protect Diana. She didn't know it was him, since he was wearing a mask at the time, that covered even his hair, so it was impossible to make a connection between him and that "masked man".

That scar still remained to this day. "It is unbelievable how much I initially hated you, yet we were more similar than I could have imagined."

Tatsuki smiled, leaned over and kissed Isaac on the cheek. "I guess you didn't understand at that time."

"Tatsuki," a voice said, and M.O.M was standing there. "The session is done." Although M.O.M didn't admit it right now, she felt happy that Isaac had someone like Tatsuki to care for him.

"This is probably the last session we'll have," Tatsuki said, holding Isaac's hand, "so be sure to call, okay?"

Isaac smiled; whenever he was alone, and had gotten the chance, he would sometimes call Tatsuki, to tell her how things were going. "Don't worry Tatsuki," Isaac said with a smile, "I will."

Tatsuki nodded, and walked out. M.O.M then walked in, and sat by Isaac's side. "How are you doing, Isaac?" She said tenderly.

"Well," Isaac said, "I seem to be recovering quite nicely from Tatsuki's treatment, and her time here has compensated for everything that happened on Christmas day." His voice trailed off as he spoke, remembering that painful day, both emotionally and physically.

"In case you are wondering," M.O.M said, "I heard that Diana's parents and Martin decided to visit. But...Martin didn't take things too well initially when Gerard said he was impressed with Marvin."

"What are you talking about?" Isaac questioned.

"Well," she began to explain, "Martin doesn't really like Marvin in a way, due to his and being better than him. I'll admit, when I first brought Marvin in, I believe he'd actually make a better agent than Martin."

"And you trusted a newcomer more than one of your own agents, right?" Isaac almost said it spitefully.

"Well, he did help Diana and Martin in the Amazon with an oxygen-eating bacteria," M.O.M said, sounding hurt, "and in fact, it was Diana who praised him." M.O.M didn't understand why, but Isaac's words seemed to sting. "I took that into account, and made him an agent. He always seemed to be confident in himself, and essentially did everything Martin did, only better. I guess that gave him some appeal. Although, sometimes he could be a bit arrogant whenever I dealt with him."

"So he was Mr. Popularity himself," Isaac said, "but you know, being better don't necessarily mean good." M.O.M nodded in response to her son's observation; Proteus and Algernon were once the best of the best in the Center as well.

"However, he messed up on his first mission with Martin and Diana, so I shipped him off to the North Pole." She earned a chuckle from Isaac for saying that, and it made her smile. Despite the fact it wasn't proper to laugh at someone's suffering, Isaac always seemed to love it when the overly confident were humiliated in some way. "I decided to send him to Hawaii after he helped Martin and Diana deal with a parasite he and one of the other agents stationed there when they found a frozen Wooly Mammoth." Isaac nodded as if to say "Of course". He may have hated arrogant people, but knew when to acknowledge talent, as he did Marvin's when hearing of both his successful exploits.

"Then he messed up again, this time on purpose." M.O.M stated.

"On purpose?" Isaac questioned, curious.

"Well, he apparently heard of the lucky charm of a Leprechaun named Loog, and asked to be stationed in the general area where it was located. He wanted the charm for himself due to it's luck-giving abilities," M.O.M placed her hands on her crossed legs, "even though he said he couldn't help himself. Then he contacted Diana and Martin for help, not wanting me to find out about his little stunt."

"You would have killed him if you had found out," Isaac stated, knowing his M.O.M's temperament. They both shared a little laugh. Isaac was well acquainted with his mother's fury, as he had inherited a part of that himself.

"Well, after Diana destroyed the clover after both Marvin _and_ Martin were caught under it's spell, they informed me of Marvin's actions. To say the least, I was quite disappointed in him. So, I continued to move him around; pairing him up with other agents from other countries, sometimes rookies, to teach him a bit of respect and responsibility..." Her voice slowed, and she looked away.

"Then why is he now posted at Torrington," Isaac questioned.

"...Isaac," Olivia said, "I just got the notice a few days ago about his posting, and I never got the chance to tell you until now, but..." She inhaled, and exhaled. _It's not like her to be uneasy when talking about something. _"Well, the Board of Directors decided that Marvin was to replace you."

"REPLACE ME?!" Isaac screamed at the top of his voice in disbelief, moving up quickly as he did so. He got too worked up, and part of his wound tore open, and he coughed up blood.

"Calm down, Isaac," she ordered, and placed her hands on Isaac's back and chest, easing him down gently, and repeated softly. "Calm down, dear." She proceeded to explain. "The Board believed that I had a biased reason for posting you with Martin and Diana, and believed someone with more experience in the field should be paired up with them on missions. I had no choice in the matter."

"...How long do I have?" Isaac asked, and noticed Tatsuki by the door way; she must have been talking with his Father when she heard him shout. After all, for some reason, he still felt her presence in the house, even when he was talking with M.O.M.

"They were willing to give you a grace period of two weeks," M.O.M said, "just enough time to get your affairs in order." She nodded to Tatsuki, and she sat on the other side of the bed, mending the re-opened wound, still shivering at the sight of his blood. To tell the truth, after seeing Isaac nearly sacrifice himself for Diana, she finally got over her fear of blood, not wanting to see anymore be shed by her brother.

"I see," Isaac said, "what a two weeks this has been." He looked at Tatsuki, and smiled. "I guess you were speaking to Dad. I felt your presences in close proximity to each other." M.O.M looked at Tatsuki with alarm, puzzling him even further. Tatsuki nodded; she and Harold should probably take care to suppress their power, so Isaac doesn't get suspicious. "I can't help but think that all of you are hiding something from me," Isaac said. It was too late; he was already suspicious.

"Isaac," M.O.M said, "just be patient. We'll eventually tell you what it is all about, just...don't get too angry if something bad happens to Martin or especially Diana on a mission, okay?"

Isaac took on a comically quizzical face when M.O.M asked that of him. Tatsuki actually chuckled; the ever-so serious Isaac always looked cute when puzzled. "Why would you ask that of me? Isn't it natural to get angry when someone you care about gets hurt?"

M.O.M thought it over. "I want you to stay collected and calm when that happens; I don't want you running the risk of getting hurt yourself, especially after what recently happened." Isaac understood a bit now; she didn't want him to come back bleeding.

He smiled. "Don't worry yourself so much, Mom," he said, "I'm your son and Dad's."

"I know you are," she said, and kissed her son on the cheek. _More than you realize, _she thought. "Get some sleep; it will help the recovery." Giving him a sincere smile only a mother could have, she left for the Center, anticipating his return.

-

A few days later, after Isaac was fully healed...

"How was my absence explained, anyway," Isaac asked.

Harold shook his head from the car window; even after being away for two weeks (one of them being a School week), Isaac was concerned as to what excuse his mother cooked up.

"It was simple," he said, "I simply told them that you wished to spend a week off from school with your parents, because your mother had finally come home from work, and you wanted to celebrate."

"So, that would actually be the truth then," Isaac figured; most of what he saw of M.O.M was _at work, _and not even the School knew that Ms. Mandell was his mother. This was the first time that M.O.M had ever spent extended time outside the Center with her family. "Did they accept it?"

"Actually, they did. See you around, Isaac." And Harold Alexander, Re-instated Center agent, drove away. Isaac smiled to himself as he thought that; the entire family was now working at the Center, officially making it a family business. Looking at Torrington Academy, he walked towards it, and wondered how he would spent his possibly last two weeks there, and how he'd make amends with Diana this time. Last time, it was just an argument about work; this time, he'd have to deal with that, and how the memory loss wiped away what they did at Christmas...

-

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!"

Isaac's eyes went wide when confronted by an ecstatic Martin; what was going on when he was away?

"You didn't bother to ask Principal Pebbleton?" Isaac questioned. "Mom had come back from work, and Dad asked if I could stay at home so we could get re-acquainted."

Martin looked at him suspiciously; he had his doubts about that. He was also suspicious about Isaac's relationship with M.O.M. Their mannerisms, temperaments, and cold personalities at times were scarily similar. Martin entertained the idea that Isaac was M.O.M's son, but he decided to think more about it; he didn't want to make a fool of himself. But still, the evidence was there...

"Well I'm glad for you," Martin insisted, as they walked along, "but things have not been the same at **all **with your absence. I can't go anywhere _near _Diana without finding her close by Marvin. And she hasn't mentioned you at all, and-"

"Excuse me," Isaac said, stopping Martin, "not a single word?"

"Nada," he said, "she hasn't mentioned you since she got back from the Center for some reason."

Isaac's expression looked pained, and he let go. _Not a single word? But why...?_ "When I asked her," Martin said, "she simply said: "There's something I have to talk about only to _him. _I want to know why my memories of Christmas day vanished.""

"I see," Isaac said, "she's wondering about that, huh?"

"What happened," Martin asked, "I mean, I did see her faint at the sight of blood in the cafeteria from someone's tiny cut. She's not _that_ weak."

Isaac paused as he thought it over. He decided he had to tell him. Finding a deserted room, he sat him down. "It all began when M.O.M gave us a call, for a Mission to Transylvania..."

-

Martin listened all the way through, and for the first time since they began missions together, he didn't speak; only stayed quiet. "My god," he said, "so that's what happened. And...Diana doesn't know anything about this?"

"Yes," Isaac said, observing the unusually flush Martin, "and you can't tell her the truth. I don't know how she'd react to find out she nearly killed me."

"I don't know how she'd react either," Martin said in a concerned voice. "But when you mentioned the blood...it reminded me of the nightmares I've been having."

Isaac's interest was perked. "What nightmares?"

"...Never mind," Martin asked, "I don't want to talk about it."

"When you finally decide you want to," Isaac said, "I'll listen."

Martin chuckled. "Thanks. Don't tell Diana about these nightmares, okay? And no word of this to Marvin."

Isaac smiled. "My lips are sealed. Now, I think it's time I looked for Diana, and apologized." Saying that, he left, leaving Martin to be concerned about his nightmares. He didn't want Isaac to know they began right after what he told them was his training mission. He gripped his head in pain; why were these nightmares happening to him, and why did they feel like they were part of something he should be remembering?

-

Isaac searched the halls high and low for Diana, until he finally found her in the cafeteria...with Marvin. Seeing Diana enjoying herself, he had decided to wait until later to talk to her, but Diana saw him. Dismissing herself from the table, she went towards Isaac, and he could observe that Marvin seemed to have an almost sour look on his face. It seemed that he didn't like being stood up at all.

"About time you got back, Isaac," she said, with a hint of fire in her voice, directed at him. _She's still mad. _Isaac thought, as she dragged him away to her room.

"Look, Diana," Isaac said, "about your loss of memory, I am so sorry, and..."

"Don't bother, Isaac," Diana said...and she smiled? "I know it must have happened for some reason." This left Isaac flabbergasted; he was expecting apologizing to be much harder. "I guess you are wondering why I'm not furious at you, aren't you? Well, Jenni decided to fill in the blanks about what we did together."

Isaac allowed himself a chuckle. _Leave it up to Jenni to tell Diana about what she missed, even if she doesn't know about the Center._

"...I don't know what happened at the Center, or in Transylvania," Diana said, her smile replaced by a sad frown, "but I guess that I was wrong about Chris and Alyssa, and..." She placed a tender hand over Isaac's heart, and shed a small tear. "...I couldn't bear the thought if something happened to you."

"Diana," Isaac said, "nothing happened."

"Stop lying to protect me," Diana shouted, "Jenni told me how I fainted at the sight of blood in the cafeteria, and that I was having periods of exhaustion during the day. I know something bad happened, and I want to know."

Isaac wanted to protest, but remembered what Diana said: _"When that happens," Diana said, "I will know that I didn't have any control over what I did. I'll…I'll understand." _

_I have to tell you, _Isaac said, gritting his teeth, _I can't keep it secret forever. _"...All right Diana. I...I'll tell you."

He sat her down on the bed. "Diana...Chris was a vampire," he began.

Diana looked away. "I guess you were right to be cautious. But how did he live in the sunlight?"

"I don't know the specifics," Isaac said, "but apparently his master, Alucard, was a half-human/Vampire hybrid son of Dracula, and they possessed an immunity to light, maintaining all their power, unlike Dracula, who lost his in the sunlight (Bram Stoker version). After our argument, you left with them, and...he bit you," he said, placing a hand over where the bite marks were. Diana wrapped her hands over Isaac's; those scars were her first hints that something happened.

"...We tried to cover up what could have happened to you, so you wouldn't be worried," Isaac said, "so me and M.O.M decided you should have a normal day at Torrington, so I could keep an eye on, and until a cure was made...the cure was what wiped your memory."

"So nothing actually happened?" Diana said. "It was just a side-effect?"

Isaac closed his eyes, and looked away. "No, Diana," he said, "when we went to the Center, and when the real reason was told to you, we got into an arguement, and...I cut myself, and..." He took off the black, dragon-styled shirt he decided to wear that day, "well, this happened."

Diana covered her mouth in shock; across Isaac's stomach, were five scars evenly spaced out. "My...god! You...you mean...?"

"I didn't want to show you Diana," he said, putting the shirt back on, "but you turned into a vampire and...did that."

Diana panted, and shed tears from her eyes, and cried on Isaac's shoulder. "I...I'm so sorry...I didn't mean to..."

"Diana, it wasn't you," he said, looking into her eyes. "You had no control over your actions. It doesn't make you a monster," Isaac assured her, and pulled her close, "It doesn't."

"How could you say that," she whispered, choking back tears, "you could have died, and it would have been my fault."

"Diana," he said comfortingly, "what mattered most to me that you were cured of being a vampire. I risked my life because of that."

Diana managed to smile; Isaac had always taken risks whenever she was in danger. "...You're right. I shouldn't blame myself for something I have no control over."

Isaac pulled her up from the bed. "I was worried about how it would affect you," he admitted, "so I was initially hesitant to tell you about it."

"Isaac," she said, "there was also something else Jenni mentioned to me...about the dance."

"Really, Isaac asked, "what was that?"

She placed a hand on the back of his head. "You should know." She said softly, and the two of them slowly embraced, and kissed each other. "It is Christmas tradition after all; kissing under the mistletoe," she said with a smile, running a hand through Isaac's currently let down hair.

Isaac chuckled; yes, it was tradition. He watched as Diana moved her hand to encompass the necklace she had given. "All this time," she said jokingly, pushing him, "and you still haven't given me my gift yet!"

"What can I say," Isaac said with a laugh, "making something completely unique takes a lot of time. Besides, I only placed the order the day before our mission."

Diana laughed. "How big of a procrastinator are you? I placed my order _two _weeks ahead of time."

"The day you procrastinate will be once in a Blue Moon!"

The two of them shared a laugh with each other, unaware of what was going to happen in the days ahead, and how much this moment would matter.

"I guess I should get going," Isaac said, heading for the door, "and see what I missed over the past week."

"Of course you should," Diana said, "well, see you later."

"Oh, by the way," Isaac said, "my Dad got re-instated."

"That's wonderful," Diana said, smiling at Isaac's fortune, and with anticipation: now his entire family was back at the Center, and she couldn't wait to see what his father could do.

Smiling at her, he closed the door. Diana then sat down, and fell into thought; the scars he intended to show her, weren't the only ones she saw. It was impossible for Isaac to hide that scar that extended down from his shoulder to opposite hip, and she didn't bring it up, because it reminded her of that masked man she and Martin met up with. _He was covered head to toe, _she thought, _and had an injury that would have resulted in that same scar Isaac... _She shook her head, since that theory was as crazy as one of Martin's, but still, it held merit, so she logged that detail away, deciding that it wasn't the time or place to ask Isaac about it.

-

After gathering everything he had to do in time for next Monday (it was a Saturday that day), and put it on his desk, he decided to walk around Torrington. _She didn't ask about the other scar, _he thought, _I'm not sure if she just wanted to respect my privacy, or try to figure it out on her own. But eventually, she'll find out that I was the man in the mask, and my involvement with Sousuke. _

He suddenly remembered: today was his Karate practice with the School Tae-kwon-Do group, and also Diana's gymnastics practice. It was a while ago, back in October, when he encouraged Diana to take up Gymnastics after a mission where he was summarily amazed by a brief burst of co-ordination and grace she displayed, when the two of them had to rescue Martin from an old, haunted castle.

Gathering up his practice clothes, he went to the gym change rooms. He hid himself away, because he didn't want a rumour going around about "Isaac's scars"; he hated attention. He reminded himself to tell the coach that he was going to go easy today; no need to risk ripping the wound open again. When he got changed, and went out into the gym, he saw a crowd surrounding the ring, all in awe of something. When he looked through the crowds, he saw what he was expecting: Marvin had just finished sparring with another one of the fighters, and apparently won. Now the crowd was literally squeeing, and it was hurt Isaac's ears.

He used three words to disperse the crowd, which also included other Tae-kwon-do fighters: "What's going on?"

They parted like the Red Sea; Isaac had quite the reputation of being an even higher ranked Martial Artist master than the teacher himself. When asked why he'd bother to join, he simply said: "I don't want to lose my edge." The current class champ decided to ask "what could a white-haired weirdo like you possibly do?" at one point, and Isaac decided to show him, and said _former _champ was always the first to back away from Isaac. "A demon in human form", he called Isaac, referencing the way he was tossed around in said fight.

"Wait a minute, you're..." Marvin said, upon seeing Isaac.

"Yes, I am," Isaac admitted, and calmly walked up to the stage, "and what's wrong with that?"

Marvin was annoyed; everyone was in awe at his victory, yet this white-haired brat was treating it as absolutely nothing; as if _he _was absolutely nothing. "Let's not get into a quarrel right now, all right?" Isaac calmly said. "I came here to practice, _not _to watch you fight."

"Don't you know who I am?" Marvin asked fiercely.

"Why, yes," Isaac admitted, "I kept on hearing the students praise you in the halls, and I couldn't help but listen into their praises."

Marvin stood proudly, acting self-important. "And what did you hear?"

"Absolutely nothing of interest to me." Isaac simply responded.

This caused a murmur around the audience, and steamed Marvin; Isaac just brushed off all of his achievement like they were nothing. "Excuse me?"

"It's obvious you like to show off," he said, noting the gathering crowd, and even the gymnasts and Diana stopped to watch the exchange, "and frankly, I don't like people who boast every single achievement they have in life."

"Do you want to fight?" Marvin threatened, and a few more squees came from the crowd at Marvin's boldness.

Isaac took a deep breath, and exhaled in exasperation. "Whatever you say," Isaac said, and walked to the other side of the ring, "but I should warn you, I'm an expert."

"Well I am too," Marvin boasted. He was briefly confused by the quietness of the crowd, but brushed it off as anticipation of his victory. What they really were feeling was just quiet waiting, and a hint of fear. Isaac didn't even looked bothered at the prospect of fighting Marvin, and to some, he looked like he wanted to finish quickly.

Getting into stance, Isaac simply said: "I don't really care."

Marvin gritted his teeth, and took a stance as well. Those who were part of Tae-kwon-do, and even Jenni, who was in the crowd, broke out into cold sweat, preparing for the beating that Marvin would probably receive. Marvin was tense, and gritting his teeth, while Isaac was almost lax, without a care in the world. _I suppose I could entertain Marvin for a while, _Isaac said, remembering to be cautious of his wound, _and then kick it into over-drive, and knock him out._

"You know the rules," the coach said, "the victor will be determined when one of you admits defeat, or falls out of the ring."

"That person will be you," Marvin said, to which Isaac only rolled his eyes.

"BEGIN!" The coach yelled. At that, Marvin ran forward.

He tossed a punch at Isaac, only to have it swatted away. He kicked and the same thing happened. Then Isaac responded, and landed two swift blows in a row, knocking Marvin back, earning applause from the crowd. _They're cheering him on? _Marvin thought. _They should be cheering me! _With that intent in mind, he lunged forward, and let loose a flurry of blows that Isaac traced and blocked. Then, when it _appeared _Isaac's guard was down, Marvin punched Isaac in the face, causing him to tumble a bit, earning some awe of the crowd. Marvin looked at the crowd, pleased with himself.

"That was mildly impressive.?"

Marvin turned to see Isaac simply rubbing the part where he was hit, acting as if nothing happened. "You know," he said innocently, "when I decided to let you hit me, I thought it'd be harder."

"What? You mean you **let **me hit you?" Marvin growled.

"Well, it's only sporting that I let my opponents get one hit on me once in a while," Isaac said, "plus I wanted to see what to expect should you be able to hit me. Now then," he said, getting back into stance, "shall we continue?"

Marvin yelled, and threw a fist forward, only to have it caught. Throwing the other one forward yielded the same result, and Isaac booted him away. It became clear to the audience that Isaac was holding back, and that he was only toying with Marvin. Marvin realized this, and began to fight harder, but couldn't quite break Isaac's guard as he received only counter blows. Isaac wasn't going on the offensive.

Unfortunately, Isaac was too lax and cautious this time, and when Marvin found an opening, he swung his fist forward _**hard**_...right into Isaac's recovering wound. Since the sensation of being ripped open was still raw, and the nerves were also raw, a blow that Isaac would have normally taken without much effort, caused him to yell in pain, and grip his chest. The audience gasped in fear, and Marvin looked at his fist. He smiled maliciously. "It seems you aren't so tough after all." He mocked, and hit that same spot twice over, causing Isaac to yell in pain more, and he could even feel the blood coming up his throat, but he forced it back.

Isaac fell to his knees, and Marvin then kicked him in that spot, knocking him back, and by the time he stopped stumbling, he covered his mouth and coughed. On his hand was blood, causing some of the girls in the audience to scream. _Damn, _Isaac thought, _even after two weeks and Tatsuki's healing, it still isn't completely fixed. _"Marvin that's enough!" The coach yelled. Isaac saw Diana run forward, but he put a hand up, and knowing he meant her, she stopped. Even Martin, who had come to watch, stopped running, even though it wasn't directed at him. "I'm not sure what happened, but Mr. Alexander is unable to-"

"You said the rules were "until they give up", or "they're knocked out of the ring". Well he hasn't given up, nor is he out of the ring _yet!" _The force he said it with caused some people to back away; he wasn't going to stop until Isaac was down.

"But-" the coach said, but Isaac put up a hand for him. "Coach, I can handle this." He stopped so that someone from the crowd gave him two towels: one wet one to soak away the blood, and the other to dry his hands.

Marvin chuckled. "Handle it? Are you joking! I hit you only four times, and look at the state you are in. I'm ending this now!" He ran forward, and swung forward with a haymaker as hard as he possibly could, intent on knocking Isaac out cold. Isaac caught it with is bare hands, stopping Marvin cold.

"I hate to break it to you," Isaac said, as an astonished Marvin looked at him, "but..." He tightened his right fist, and pulled it back. "...I'll be the one putting an end to this fight." He then smiled, and everyone shivered, and Marvin's eyes widened in fear; that cold, steel smile meant that _someone, _this time being Marvin, was about to be owned _**HARD!**_

For the first time since the beginning of this fight, Isaac put the full force of his strength behind a punch, paying back Marvin by aiming for the gut. The force literally forced Marvin off the ground, and forced all the air out of him, and the look of disbelief on his face clearly showed he didn't see this coming. He was down on his knees and panting; that took Marvin three hits on an injured Isaac, Isaac did with one punch. He walked forward, grabbed Marvin, and tossed him to the side, and he rolled out of the ring.

The crowd was silent. Isaac preferred it that way; no cheer was suppose to come from a fight. "I should have told you I had a small skiing accident over the week," Isaac said, covering up the reason for the blood, "and it's still a bit tender. If you don't mind, I'd like to take today off for practice."

"Well," the coach said, "you didn't have to quite go so hard on him. I don't think you're one to get into an accident so easily, but it can happen to anyone. Go ahead, Marvin just wanted to show people how good of a fighter he was. Guess he didn't anticipate you."

Isaac shrugged, and stepped off, deciding he was going to watch Diana practice her gymnastics. He didn't have to wait long to see her walking towards him, and she hugged him. "Why didn't you tell me it still hurt," she whispered into his ear. _Well, _Isaac thought, _it seems that at least one rumour will go around today._

"I didn't want to worry you," Isaac said, and toned it down to a whisper, "don't blame yourself for what just happened."

He moved her away from him. "Let's just ignore it for now, all right? It seems I've got today off, so I still got time to watch you."

Diana smiled, and they walked over to where the gymnasts had resumed practising, soon accompanied by Martin.


	3. Excursion

Excursion

"MARVIN'S GOING TO REPLACE YOU?!" Martin screamed. Isaac covered his ears so he wouldn't go deaf, and he saw that both Martin and Diana had disbelieving looks on their faces; he had just told them Marvin was going to replace him by the end of two weeks. "Have they lost it?!"

Before he could rant on any further, Diana elbowed him in the side. "Martin, keep it down!" Diana told him. With a look of regret, she looked at Isaac. "This was completely unexpected, Isaac," she said, "I'll admit, even though I was initially excited to see Marvin back-"

"Try ecstatically love-struck,"Martin blurted out, and he was slapped by both Diana and Isaac. "You two shouldn't be so sensitive," he said, rubbing his face.

"As I was saying," Diana admitted, "even though I was excited to see Marvin back, but also confused; there were already four agents at Torrington (including Java), so why was there the need for another agent? ...I guess I know. How long are you going to be here until you leave?"

"Two weeks," Isaac stated, "that's the amount of time I have until I am shipped out. The post is of my choosing, so it won't be that bad. I spent a year in Osaka before I came here, so maybe I'll ask for a station there."

"Really?" Diana asked excitedly. "You used to..." she calmed down. "...Live in Osaka..." _Then that means...Isaac was in Osaka at the same time we were protecting Tatsuki. Did he see us there? And if he did, why didn't he...?_

"Diana," Isaac asked, "is something wrong?" _I may have given away too much, _Isaac thought.

Diana smiled. "Nothing," she said, "we just had a mission there once. I can't believe how close we came to seeing you."

_I saw you, _Isaac thought in regret, _but for the sake of your mission, I stayed out of it..._ He unknowingly traced his finger over his scar from that incident..._For the most part._

Diana noticed this gesture, and she became more suspicious of him, and began to wonder again if he was that "masked man". _No, _she decided, _even if he was in someway connected to Sousuke, M.O.M wouldn't dare let Isaac anywhere near him._

Even Martin became suspicious. "Isaac," he said, "are you hiding something from us?"

Isaac's eyes briefly widened, before closing in thought. "What's part of my past," he spoke, "before I came to Torrigton isn't of your concern." He stood up. "I'm sorry," he said with regret, "but...it's M.O.M's orders." He let his hand rest on the door knob, before opening it, and leaving Diana's room.

"All this time," Diana said, "and Isaac is keeping secrets from us. What is it about what happened before he met us that he wants to keep hidden?"

"Diana," Martin suggested, "how would you have felt if he came out and said he was working full-time for the Center before he met us again? He probably wanted our relationship to be like it was when we last saw each other."

Diana was briefly stunned; Martin's suggestion made sense. She let her self smile a little; it always seemed that Martin was smarter than he allowed himself to display, since he was always too lazy to do anything productive in school. "That makes sense. Isaac was never one to elaborate on his past in the first place."

"Do you think we should ask him about it?" Martin questioned.

"I don't think so," Diana told him, "I have a feeling he'll tell us in his own time. Besides," she said, as she went to the door, "it would be intruding on his privacy. Plus, I don't want to make any mistakes."

"Then where are you going," Martin asked, standing up at the same time as his sister. He knew she was right, even though he didn't openly admit it.

"I'm going to look for Isaac," she stated. "Knowing M.O.M, she'll probably have us on a mission today, and I don't want to go looking for Isaac." She went out the door.

"Wait for me," Martin stated, and went after her.

After finding out he was in his dorm catching up on work, Diana and Martin let him be until he was done his work. A few hours later, Isaac decided he had done enough, and left what little he had left to do for Sunday. He decided to walk to the library, because he thought Diana would be there. However, he was intercepted by Marvin. Isaac could tell he was angry about something. "There you are!"

Isaac sighed. "What do you want to talk to me about, Marvin?" He asked, although he had a feeling he knew the answer.

"Do you have any idea how much you humiliated me earlier today," he stated. _Yup, _Isaac thought, _it was about that. _"Now half the school knows you beat me!"

"Does it really matter," Isaac said, already tired of this conversation, "is your reputation really that important to you?"

"I don't like being up-staged," he said, stepping front of Isaac, "and that is precisely what you did."

"But that wasn't my intention, so now if you'll excuse me," Isaac said, walking around Marvin, "I'm going to see if Diana's in the library."

He didn't see it coming, and Marvin grabbed him, and shoved him into the nearby wall. "What is it between you and Diana," he said, and he seemed angry, "what makes you so special? Even Diana's parents were asking about you, particularly her mother!"

_Is that what this is about, _Isaac thought curiously, _he was over-looked by Martin and Diana's parent who wondered more about me?_ "Unlike you," Isaac said truthfully, "I knew Diana and Martin when they were kids, and as a result, so does Mr. Mystery, so don't take it personally." He forced Marvin away, and walked back to the library.

"I don't understand how you even got into the Center in the first place," Marvin stated almost venomously, "I mean, a bunch of kids with a magical book and you're in? I had to take care of an oxygen-eating bacteria to get recognized by the Center." Isaac stopped walking, and Marvin grinned spitefully. "Either M.O.M's standards have dropped, or there's some kind of favouritism due to your old man being an old buddy of hers. He left the Center after a year? That's pitiful if you ask me."

Isaac tried to take it in stride, but the insult to his father was a little much for him to contain. It took all his will to keep Isaac from decking Marvin. "He left the Center to look after me after I was born!" He shouted at Marvin. "In comparison to you, he was a great agent, so don't go insulting him like that! And it doesn't concern you how I earned my place in the Center!" _Dad was a great agent during his run, _Isaac thought to himself, _and Marvin doesn't know a thing about the Miyabe incident!_

"But your time here is done," he said, almost grinning in evil delight, "since I've been sent to replace you. It seems the brass recognizes _real _talent."

Isaac grabbed Marvin by the collar. "Now see here-!"

"Isaac, Marvin, what's going on?!"

Isaac suddenly looked to the side, and found Martin and Diana up the hall, with Diana staring angrily at both of them. Marvin pushed himself away. "Nothing that concerns you," Marvin said, but Isaac stepped forward. "He was questioning me about the reason why I got into the Center in the first place," Isaac stated, summarizing the argument, "and he called my Dad pitiful for leaving the Center after just one year, and jested about replacing me here at Torrington. He was a bit..." he thought about whether or not to tell Diana about what first happened. "...Annoyed about what happened earlier today, and about how your parents asked about me when they visited."

"I see," Diana said, taking it in stride, "so just a normal argument, right Isaac? I guess it can't be helped; this is the first time you two have met each other."

"What's going on, Diana," Marvin asked, wanting to be noticed, "did the Center call us for a mission?"

"As a matter of fact, yes," Martin said, almost through gritted teeth, "we do have a mission. Apparently, M.O.M has someone she wants us to meet."

"Someone to meet," Marvin questioned, "and why do you seem a little angry?"

"Let's just say I didn't like it when Isaac said you called his father pitiful," Martin responded, "and you shouldn't let such simple things get to you."

"Really," Marvin responded, "well what about when I helped you two in the Amazon, and on my first mission?"

"Didn't you mess up your first mission?" Isaac stated. Everyone looked at him. "M.O.M told me during my absence from Torrington about Marvin," he replied, "since she thought I should get to know who's replacing me."

"It seems it was favouritism after all," Marvin muttered.

"Can we stop this, all three of you," Diana interjected, "M.O.M wants us at the Center, now!"

"Sorry Diana," Isaac said, and walked over to her as she started walking to where the portal was. Martin and Marvin soon followed after.

After meeting up with Java, entering the portal, and going through the normal scanning procedures, they were greeted by Billy in the elevator shaft. "Hey, Isaac," he said happily, "it's nice to see you back!"

"It's good to be back," Isaac said, and then went silent. "...For however long."

"Sorry about the move," Billy said, "but it isn't like M.O.M's got total control of the Center you know."

"Don't worry," Isaac stated, "I already know where I'm going."

"So, Billy," Marvin interrupted, "who is this guy M.O.M wants us to meet?"

"An old re-instated agent," Billy said happily, "the Center is abuzz about his return, particularly all the senior agents." The elevator then stopped at M.O.M's office. "I can't wait to see how he handles his first mission after 18 years."

"Did you say...18 years," Martin questioned in surprise.

"Oh, I didn't tell you, didn't I?" Isaac chuckled. They heard laughter from the office. "Really, Olivia? That really did happen once? How can Martin be so clumsy?"

"That voice!" Martin said in amazement.

"Whose voice?" Marvin questioned.

As the doors opened, in the middle of an office, M.O.M and a white-haired man were sitting across from each other at a table, and were currently laughing about something. Martin was rendered slack-jawed as he recognized the man. "Well, you know Martin," Olivia said, "he's always fascinated about whatever is going on in my lab, no matter how important it is."

"HAROLD ALEXANDER??!!" Olivia and Harold looked at the door to see one shocked Martin, and a smiling Diana and Isaac, and a mildly shocked Marvin.

"Wait a minute," he protested, "so that kid's Dad is the re-instated agent?"

"Yes, I am," Harold said, and looked at Martin. "Martin, do you realize that due to your little mishap with the Scrolls of Agathar that she had to send me to the next possible location to look for another set of those scrolls (I found them by the way)?"

It was so out of the blue Martin couldn't respond. He only said: "Um, sorry?"

"Don't be," Harold admitted, "Olivia has sent me many times to look for...unique archeological finds during my time, which not only in a sense means I was only semi-retired, but also has made my career multiple times."

"Really?" Diana said with interest. "If only our Dad was so lucky."

"Okay, why is he here," Marvin questioned, earning an irritated look from Isaac.

"I'll be accompanying you on your next mission," Harold responded, "seeing as how I just got re-instated, I want to see if I've still got it."

"Hey, we don't need an extra person on the team," Marvin protested, "your son is baggage enough."

"Marvin-" Diana interrupted, but was ignored, "and I don't see how you'll help in anyway."

For some reason, M.O.M was uncharacteristically irritated. "It is just for one mission so **don't get upset over it!" **She suddenly yelled, stunning everyone in the room. Right after, she went a little faint, leaving Harold to balance her. "Are you all right," Harold said softly.

"I'm fine, I just," she said, and sat down in her office desk, "feel a little dizzy for some reason." _M.O.M, _Isaac thought in worry, _what's wrong with you?_

"Anyway," she said, collecting her emotions, "it seems your next mission will take Harold back to his roots as an agent. There have been strange disturbances in Athens, and I want all of you to check it out. As for Isaac..." She bit her lip, pondering if it was a good idea. "I have a special assignment for him."

"WHAT?!"

Everyone took a step back at Marvin's protest. "Why does this white-haired weirdo get a special assignment," he spat, irritating both Isaac and Harold, "while we are stuck baby-sitting his old man?"

M.O.M held back her temper, and explained clearly to Marvin: "Harold needs an assignment to get him back on the field, and having at least six agents working on a case like this is a little much. Besides, this special assignment is a bit personal for Isaac, so he has proper motivation." _Personal...to me? _Isaac thought. _What's going on? _"Now that I've explained," she pressed a button, and a portal to Greece opened, "you may go now."

She looked on as the agents and Harold passed through the portal, and took note of Marvin's look of annoyance at Isaac receiving a special assignment. "It's no surprise he's a bit irritated," M.O.M stated to Isaac after everyone left, "I've never really given him any special assignments, not after his two mishaps."

"And you are telling me this because...?" Isaac asked.

"At most, you'll be partners for two weeks," _If __**it **__doesn't appear before then, _she reminded herself, "and I want you to make sure you avoid any confrontations with him. Plus, it was to answer any curiosity you had about his outburst."

"I was a bit curious," Isaac admitted, "but what is so special about this assignment that you are giving it to me?"

"Octavia managed to break out again somehow." M.O.M admitted.

Isaac nearly face-palmed. That would make it the second time in two months that Octavia managed to break out of the Center. He then reminded himself how she managed to get out during all the commotion going on during the incident with Sousuke.

"There appears to be high-level paranormal activity involved in her escape," she went on to say, "since there was no signs of her breaking out. She just vanished through a portal."

"And you've already found a location?"

M.O.M allowed herself a little smile. "At the same time of her escape, we detected an inter-dimensional portal opening up in Britain, near an old, medieval castle. We suspect she is there. Your job is to apprehend her, and find out who or what decided to bust her out of prison."

"Understood," Issac stated, and walked through the portal to the Castle...

The moment they walked through the portal into Athens, Marvin just had to ask. "Seriously, how did someone like you become an agent in the first place?"

Harold sighed. "Back then, I was just visiting Athens when I got mixed up in the paranormal. A minotaur was kidnapping people in a nearby park, and I barely got away. I provided Olivia with the intel she needed on it, and being who I was, I followed her, and helped her subdue the Minotaur. It turned out to be the work of a Greek sorcerer that wanted to rule all of Greece."

"Wow," Diana said, impressed, "That's quite-"

"That's it?" Marvin interrupted, and Harold took his protests in stride. "I sealed away an oxygen-eating bacteria that could have destroyed the **world! **If I wasn't there, Martin and Diana would be dead!"

Martin and even Diana were shocked at the statement. It's true that Marvin did help them a lot, as Diana finally got Martin to admit once, but to say he was the sole reason the mission succeeded in the first place was a bit much, even for Diana, and she's the one who talked of how great Marvin was. "Marvin, maybe you're taking that statement a bit far," she said to him.

"But that's the truth, isn't it?" Marvin fired back at her.

"Well-" Diana hesitated to say, but **Harold** stopped her. "Don't say anymore. Now, as impressive as that sounds, you almost sound proud of it, don't you? That you're the only one who's done such a feat, right?"

"Of course I do," Marvin said, irritated by the man's unimpressed tone, "at least it's better than some Minotaur and sorcerer that you bagged, and I doubt anyone else has done something similar."

"I didn't go into detail about that, did I?" Harold said, his voice lowering an octave, but he felt in the mood to tell a story, so he decided to ask Martin and Diana. "You two don't mind if I give a brief summary of a mission I once went on with a friend of mine and Olivia's as we go to the first house, do you?"

Martin and Diana's interests were sparked. "Yes, please do!" They both stated; they had wanted to hear one of Harold's adventures themselves for a long time.

"Java want to hear story," the caveman chimed in, while Marvin only gave some hushed muttering.

As they began walking, Harold began. "Well, there was some trouble occurring down among Australia's forests, and our boss at the time..." He briefly stopped, as he looked at Martin and Diana's faces. They remembered meeting that man a while ago, back when they were protecting Tatsuki. That mission was still registered as classified. "Well, why are you stopping," Marvin asked.

"Well..." Diana said, but Harold shook his head, and the moment he did that, Diana knew; Harold was involved in the over-throw of Algernon. "It's nothing you need to concern yourself with at the moment, Marvin. Besides, it's classified, and these two are under strict orders to not utter a word about it."

Marvin gritted his teeth in frustration. _The kid hates being out of the loop, _Harold thought, _or is it the frustration of being...less important? _He knew Octavia from the old days, and somewhere deep down, Harold knew that Marvin was in some sense similar to Octavia, always striving to be the best. Harold reminded himself that Diana was similar in a way, but for her, that was tempered by her kind heart, morals, and her bonds with her brother.

"Skipping when the assignment was given to us," Harold continued on, avoiding the subject of Algernon, "we discovered that the disturbance in question was quite...unpleasant."

"How unpleasant," Martin said, since his dreams began as mysterious, but were starting to grow unpleasant themselves.

"Let's just say that while you dealt with an oxygen-eating bacteria in the Amazon," Harold said, and Diana instinctively knew where he was going with this, "we ran into it's flesh-eating cousin."

"Is this just some way to de-grade my achievements," Marvin stated, getting irritated by the comparison.

_Maybe it **is **better if Isaac left, _Harold began thinking to himself, _because if he starts growing hostile towards Isaac, it won't bode well on their missions. Plus, I'm not sure how the others would react if Isaac's power suddenly bursts out on a mission. _"I'm not trying to de-grade it, as you think," Harold told Marvin, "it just goes to shows the dangers working with the Center provides. After all, Martin and Diana have dealt with some world-threatening enemies too, right?"

"Yeah," Martin said, "like Borack the Faceless One. I guess you got sucked in like the rest of the world, right?"

As off-topic as it was, the mention of it got Marvin's blood boiling; in his mind, Martin only managed to not get sucked in due to a fluke by sleeping with the lights on. "Anyone who was asleep with the lights out was undoubtedly sucked in. Everyone was quite lucky that you, Diana and Billy managed to fall asleep when the lights were on, but it took skill to last the entirety of the night until the next morning to beat Borack."

"I guess fate has many tricks and surprises," Martin added, happy at the compliment Harold gave him, "I mean, who knew my ghost-catching machine would prove to be so helpful?"

"...Who knew?" Harold said quietly. He knew all too well that fate can also throw cruel twists at you in life. "But I guess we're getting off-topic," Harold said, as the witness' house came into view, "me and my associate managed to trap the bacteria in a cave when it grew into this giant monstrosity, and for extra safety measures, since we didn't exactly have cement to trap it in, we had a shipment of explosives from the Center sent, and we blew the bacteria to kingdom come. However, before that when it was in bacteria form," he grabbed his right arm with his left hand, "it managed to eat away the top layer of skin on my right arm."

Diana gasped. "That must have been excruciating!"

"It was," he said as they reached the door, "couldn't use that arm for weeks." Harold rang the doorbell. As the door opened, Harold's eyes widened a little. "You...!"

"Mr. Alexander?" The man at the door responded. "Is that really you?"

Harold's eyes widened even further; this man, by name of Perseus (or Percy), shouldn't have remembered him! "How did you...?"

"The hair," he gave a simple explanation, "I've never seen any man your age with hair quite like that! I remember telling you about those odd disappearances all those years ago. Never thought I'd see you again."

_Oh, right, _Harold remembered, _he remembers me from before he was kidnapped by the Minotaur._

Noticing everyone else, his eyes widened. "So, who are all these kids with you, and the adult?"

"Do you mind if we come inside first?" Harold asked. "I'm here about the disappearances that have been happening lately."

"Again with odd disappearances," Percy chuckled, "only this time, you come right up and ask. Who are you, Indiana Jones?"

"Ha ha, very funny," Harold said sarcastically, "I need you to tell me what you know about-"

"A minotaur?" Percy said suddenly.

For once, Harold was stopped dead mid-sentence; how did Percy know that? On top of that, he had such a smile plastered on his face. "Artemis," he called, "get down here."

They looked up at the stairs, and they saw a black-haired boy, about thirteen years old, wearing a t-shirt and pants, and almost bishounen, come down the stairs. "Oh," he said enthusiastically, "so M.O.M did send Mr. Alexander after all!"

Everyone jumped! All except Harold, who had managed to fit the pieces together from his conversation with Olivia, and the recent revelations. _So this kid is the contact...Olivia, you are such a sly one._

"Originally, this was going to be Artemis' case," Perseus explained, "but when you came back, M.O.M decided you needed to freshen up a bit. Artemis willingly handed over the case, since he felt he was not yet experienced enough to take a Minotaur."

"I just joined the Center about a month ago," Artemis explained, excitement in his voice, "so I'm still relatively new to all of this. A senior agent usually accompanies me, due to my young age."

Diana decided to speak up. "I can't believe someone as young as you managed to become an agent at the Center. Granted, me and Martin were 16 and 15 years old when we joined, but you are two years younger than I was when we came to the Center."

"So you're Diana Lombard?" He said happily. "I don't believe it! You are much prettier in person than from what I've heard."

Diana was slightly startled, and blushed when she managed to collect herself. "Th-thank you."

"HEY!" Martin spoke up. "What about me?"

"There's no need for explanations, Martin Mystery," Artemis said enthusiastically, "you are quite famous around the Center."

"AWESOME!!" Martin exclaimed happily.

"But you on the other hand..." he stated, pointing towards Marvin, "I don't know you."

Marvin was put off by this; he didn't like being second best. "My name is Marvin! Haven't you at least heard of me?"

"Hm..." Artemis pondered. "I think I heard your name before...you're that rookie who got sent up to the North Pole, right?"

"If you must know-" Marvin said angrily, but Harold cut him off. "There's no need to yell at Artemis; he's much newer than you are." He heard Marvin grumble as he sat down, and looked at Artemis' surprised face. "He seems to be a little touchy at the moment, so let's get to the point. Tell us what you know."

After explanations, Harold knew this would be different from his first paranormal encounter (within known memory at the time). A minotaur had appeared out of nowhere, and began kidnapping innocent civilians, but when Artemis managed to cut it, a purple like magical substance slowly streamed out of the wound. _Just like that demon Isaac encountered on his first mission, _he realized, _so it's a good bet a sorcerer is behind this._ The situations were different, and the location where it was tracked to: Mount Etna.

The location surprised Harold; Mount Etna was far away from Athens, all the way over in Italy. "How could a minotaur possibly move so fast?" Diana asked. "I guess that due to the possibility of it being a sorcerer, the people were magically transported."

"How do you know that?" Marvin asked.

"We've had experience," Martin answered, "and it happened to be Isaac's first mission with us. It may have been a bunch of kids, but that book was serious material. We were lucky they weren't out to kill someone."

Diana didn't notice it, but Martin could smell it; Marvin was annoyed. _I don't understand why, _Martin thought, _but Marvin seems to be easily annoyed by any mention of Isaac. I guess after being beaten by Isaac so thoroughly, he's a little ticked off._

"The book doesn't matter at the moment," Harold stated, surprising them. "What matters is what is buried **under **Mount Etna."

"Under it?" Marvin questioned. "What could possibly be under there that's so threatening?"

Harold sighed; it seemed that Marvin didn't know as much about Greek Mythology as he did. "Have you ever heard of the Titan called Typhon?"

Before Marvin could answer, Martin did. "I heard about the guy before; he's supposed to be some kind of monster that once beat Zeus. Me and Diana came across him one time when researching Greek myths before we became Center agents. Her idea, not mine."

Harold allowed himself a smile; it made things much easier to explain. "Well, the legends about Greek Gods are actually true," Harold said, "and Typhon also existed. He's even registered on the Center's black-list."

"Black-list?" Diana asked. "What's that?"

"Even though they are defunct," Harold stated, "the former Center Black Ops were trained to handles threats of the magnitude Typhon represents, and the list was kept in case they ever re-appeared. He's a listed world-breaker," he stated, earning the concern of Martin and Diana, "a threat to all of Humanity."

"But this guy was sealed away before, right?" Marvin interjected. "So it is just a simple of matter of sealing him back up if he breaks free."

"Marvin, we are talking about a being that **gods feared!" **Harold responded.** "**Sealing him back up should he be freed would take insane amounts of magic to even attempt. No, we have to stop the maniac who is trying to bring him out."

"Are you scared?" Marvin said mockingly, and Martin nearly stepped in, but Harold responded.

"Scared of a being born of Earth and Hell? A being who fathered most of the monsters in Greek Mythology? Yes, I am. You'd either have to be an immortal god," he prepped himself, "or a fool to not be."

"EXCUSE ME?!"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Diana stood between the two, arms stretched out. "We don't have time to argue over this. Marvin, Mr. Alexander's right," she stated, and before Marvin could respond in disbelief, she continued, "if Typhon really is buried under Mount Etna, we can't take the risk of him escaping."

"You are taking his side over mine?" Marvin replied angrily.

"Marvin, will you stop it?" Martin also spoke up. "He may have been retired until now, but you should probably respect his experience. I'm not going to underestimate this threat if even Harold is afraid of what could happen."

"This has something to do with that Isaac kid, doesn't it?"

"No, Marvin," Diana spoke calmly, "it doesn't have anything to do with Isaac being Harold's son; we know him, and respect his opinion, right Java?"

The caveman had been quiet for the entire argument, and didn't want to take sides until now. "Java agree with Diana."

Seeing Marvin annoyed, Harold cut to the chase. "All right then. Thank you for your time, Perseus, Artemis; it was a pleasure."

"As always, Harry." Percy stated.

"Martin, call M.O.M and tell her of the situation," Harold stated, and added, "and tell her to send a "package" for me; I'll need it."


	4. The Devil's Voice

The Devil's Voice

_Old and dilapidated, _Isaac thought, _why would Octavia hide out in a place like this?_

He had tracked Octavia down to this old castle, and the moment he laid eyes on it, he knew something was wrong. To be more accurate, he could _sense _that something was wrong, as if there was presence in the castle. An old, evil presence. Placing a hand on the gun he got from Colin at the Tenjin Matsuri, he ran for the castle. Upon running through the gate, he ran for the inner courtyard, as his new sixth sense directed him to the area of the disturbance like a magnet.

Suddenly, the sensation vanished into thin air. Now, making his way cautiously towards the area, he stepped into the open, and pulled out the gun, ready to stun Octavia at a moment's notice. But she wasn't there; he was treated to the signs of a circle of magical runes in the courtyard, and could feel the dissipating presence. _I'm too late, _he thought, and gripped his head, _and I can't comprehend this new sense I have._

He walked forward to the runes, and looking them over, recognized it from before; Sousuke Miyabe's followers used similar runes to try to bring that monster back from the grave. These were used for demonic summoning. _Then that means..._

He turned the gun's power level up to 7; just short of a kill shot on a human, but for a demon, was necessary. He sensed it behind him, turned, and fired. The demon was knocked back into the wall from the force and energy of the attack, which cracked its scaly armour, and knocked it out cold.

"I see that Olivia didn't bother to come herself," a vile voice spoke, "and instead sent her spawn."

The comment annoyed Isaac a little, and he immediately shot to where the voice was coming from, taking care to turn the gun down to 5, enough to knock her out. Where she was though, was behind a stone wall, and when it impacted, it scattered dust and rubble. "Do you honestly care about that woman so much," Octavia taunted, "that you have a hair-trigger whenever she's spoken of in a bad light?"

"Of course I do," Isaac responded, "and I hold grudges against people like you." He knew she had moved to inside the tower, with it being a safer place from him, to throw more taunts.

"Really? Well, I'm surprised; I thought you'd hate her for putting the Center above you."

Isaac bit his lip; Octavia was trying to make him attack indiscriminately. He knew what she was capable of if she had the advantage. His mind flashed to his visit to the future, as he tried to gather everything he knew about Octavia as she was in that time period, in that reality. What she once did to Mia and Marcus...

He shook his head, not wanting that thought to provoke him. "Well, she did care enough to over-throw Algernon after those Black Ops agents were sent after me and Dad..." His voice darkened. "...or more specifically, after **you **sent those men after us."

"I never liked you or Harold," Octavia admitted, "especially knowing...'what' you are."

"'What you are'?" Isaac questioned, and was answered by mocking laughter.

"You still don't know? HA! Those two are _still _keeping secrets from their own off-spring, it seems."

"What is it?" Isaac was tempted to fore-go formality, and blast clean through the tower to hit Octavia. However, he knew such an attack would possibly kill her, and he knew she needed to be brought back alive.

"Why waste the surprise," Octavia mocked, "after all, they keep secrets from everyone."

"I'm familiar with their secrecy," Isaac admitted, "but it's necessary. No one except the seniors that weren't expunged like you were know I'm M.O.M's son."

Within the tower, Octavia's mouth twisted into a sadistic smile. "And only she and her brother and associates know of Diana's...betrayal!"

The wall right behind her was blasted open without hesitation. _Did I hit a sore spot with this boy? Does he like that girl?_

"WHAT BETRAYAL?!" Isaac roared out.

Octavia laughed; Diana _did _mean something to Olivia's son after all. _Well then, allow me to stab the knife in further._

"You really don't know, do you?" Octavia mocked, stepping into view. "Diana once worked under _me willingly, _however brief our association was."

"LIES!" Isaac yelled, keeping himself from pulling the trigger. "Diana would never willingly betray the Center, or..." Isaac's eyes flared in realization and disbelief; it suddenly made sense! Diana said she was once mutated by Octavia before, back when Octavia created that super-monster that nearly destroyed the Center. When he asked Diana about the circumstances behind it, she kept quiet, as if in regret.

A seed of anger flared up inside him when he realized what that regret was about, and why the future Diana was so determined to stop Octavia; Diana helped create the monster! Realizing what he was feeling, Isaac tried to suppress his anger; Diana wouldn't have willingly gone along with it at all. Still...Isaac had a tendency to try to look at things based on current circumstance, on a singular perspective, and he directed that circumstance onto why Diana joined anyway. The question that needed to be answered was...why did she join Octavia, and betray the Center? Her unwilling aid in creating the super-creature didn't matter; what mattered was the initial reason for Diana's defection.

Octavia smiled venomously, having come out the doorway to the tower while Isaac was pondering. "Figured it out yet?" _I've got him!_

Isaac's eyes darkened, and he glared at Octavia. "...Why?"

"Why would a person like Diana, ever join a group run by me?" Octavia stated. "I know that look; your father had a tendency of singling out particular moments, or incidents himself. Even though I did trick her, you want to know how I did it, and what was _Diana's motive_ for joining me initially?"

"When people are "tricked" into doing something, they usually blame the one who tricked them, when sometimes, it is due to their own trusting natures, that renders them blind to a possible threat. Or...it is due to the fact that the puppeteer took advantage of emotions that were already there. For Diana, it was the latter, wasn't it?" _I need time to think this through, _Isaac told himself, _I need to understand why._

"Yes, it was," Octavia said, happy knowing how he was tearing into this boy's trust of Diana, someone she herself hated due to going against her, and ruining her plans. "Diana has a by-the-book style, never bending the rules, like I had when I was a Center agent. We both hold great pride in ourselves," she stated, noting Isaac's growing annoyance, "and can't stand being second-best to certain people. For me, that person was your mother. For Diana, it was Martin, who got a much better evaluation than Diana."

"I don't know what you are getting at with comparing Diana to yourself," Isaac said, "but are you trying to tell me she quit over an evaluation, and joined you?"

"Under M.O.M, she felt she couldn't fulfil her full potential, or be recognized for what she could do, not being second to Martin. I simply lured her in with the promise of being years ahead in terms of education, and advanced technology, and she was in. She performed quite admirably."

_So Diana was lured into Octavia's claws, _Isaac thought, _but how could Octavia possibly know so much about...?_

"As for how I know so much about Diana, it was easy for me with Black Ops tech to hack into the Center database that Proteus Richards made. After all, I was one of his assistants." _Oh, that explains it, _Isaac concluded, nodding his head. F_or a moment, I thought there was a traitor in the Center. _Isaac had all the info he needed.

"She was easy to manipulate, since I saw how much I and her were alike, and I knew I could use that. Unfortunately, that girl had a moral back-bone. Aside from that," she said with a prideful smile, "now do you understand why she betrayed the Center?"

Isaac sighed. "Well, I know you are no Sigmund Freud."

Saying that, he whipped out his gun, and plugged Octavia with one electromagnetic round, knocking her onto her back, screaming. "Octavia, Octavia, Octavia. Unlike Diana, you take **too much **pride in yourself. As the saying goes: "Pride goeth before a fall." That was your major down-side, plus no moral back-bone at all."

"But...Where did all that anger go?"

"I don't have a single-track mind, like you do, Octavia. Instead of just lashing out in anger or fear, I try to understand things, like I decided to try to understand why Diana went to your side. Now I know that you manipulated her anger and pride to your own uses, and cast her aside when your goals weren't accepted by Diana."

"Tch, just like your father."

"I don't have any more time to talk with you, Octavia." Opening up a communicator from his pocket, he called in. "I successfully caught Octavia Paine, but she seems to have enacted some sort of summoning ritual. The demon she seems to have summoned has been subdued too. Please send in a group of agents to take in both Octavia and the demon." Having said his fill, he closed the communicator. _The electromagnetic shot should keep her down for a while, so I have time to ponder._

Despite Isaac's own words, he still thought about what Octavia said about Diana. Isaac never thought that Diana could be so selfish as to betray the Center, so it caught him off-guard. _Maybe I should confront her..._he initially thought, but then brushed it aside; it was not his place at the moment to ask her about it. What was done, was done; confronting Diana wouldn't change anything...

_The little fool, _Octavia thought. _He doesn't realize that I've already won. I successfully managed to make contact with the Gatekeeper, and all I need to do is get my hands on the information that Martin Mystery has about this demon the Gatekeeper is interested in. After that, I'll finally have my revenge against Olivia... _She allowed herself a short chuckle before she fell unconscious, the effect of the electromagnetic blast affecting her. She amused herself with the thought of the secret that Olivia and Harold had kept from Isaac since the day he was born, and the possibility that somewhere, she had laid a seed of doubt and anger in Isaac, a seed that would be fed, when the girl begins to fear and hate him...


	5. The Silent Past

The Silent Past

"If what we're looking for is in Italy at Mount Etna," Marvin scowled, "what the heck are we doing in a **volcano?"**

Harold sighed, a wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead. "It is where Olivia told me where her contact is currently. Apparently he moves between volcanoes on occasion. Methana is where he is currently."

After calling into Olivia about the possible threat of Typhon, she ordered him to go inside Mount Methana. He thought she was joking, but she told him that an old acquaintance of hers was currently working in there. Since he was in a volcano, Harold had a pretty good idea of who this acquaintance was.

"Did he have to set up shop in an **active **volcano?" Diana questioned, as they made their way down a pathway that shouldn't even exist here.

"Assuming you know who it is, yes," Harold stated, "they are his forges, and are the few things hot enough for him to do his work."

Down below, hammer strikes were heard. "I'm guessing that's him," Martin said, "am I right?"

"Yes, it's him."

"Phew, Java really hot," Java spoke, and he had been trying to fan himself from the heat.

As they made their way further down the volcano, everyone was feeling the effects of the heat...when they suddenly hit a cool zone. "Thank god," Diana said, collapsing to her knees, panting, "I was afraid I was going to die."

Harold was relieved for the nice cool area as well, but he and Martin helped to carry Diana over to a nearby bench; they were all exhausted by the heat, but Diana appeared to take the heat far worse than everyone else, while Java looked like he already recovered.

"Don't worry about the girl," a gruff voice spoke, "as long as she stays inside there, she'll be recovered within minutes."

Martin noticed that, since Diana seemed to be breathing easier now. They looked over, and the person they saw, wasn't exactly the godly visage that one would normally suspect. This man seemed to be slightly misshapen, but not to the point the myths suggested; his feet were crippled, as described, and he seemed to be in a wheel-chair. His face was black and slightly burnt, most likely as a result of working near volcanoes. "Who are **you?" **Marvin demanded, and from what Harold could tell, seemed a bit off-put by the man's appearance. "And where's the guy we're looking for?"

The man let out a disgruntled sound. "Kids these days have no respect anymore," he spoke, "and if you mean by that favour I owe Ms. Mandell, then I'm your God. I am Hephaestus."

"God of the Forge and Metallurgy, among other things," Harold explained.

"We **all **knew that," Marvin complained.

"Then why did you ask me who I was?" Hephaestus asked, and seemed to eye Java. "You there, I've never seen another human like you before," he wheeled over to the caveman, and reached out a hand, "may I please ask your name?"

"Java the caveman," he spoke, earning Hephaestus a look of interest. "Glad to meet Hephaestus."

"I'm amazed," the God stated, and that meant a lot, "a pre-Sapien Human, and pronounce a name like mine. Also, you might be actually older than me."

Martin smiled. "I bet he is." Being around before immortals was no mean feat, but Java managed to pull it off. He remembered when they found him when he wound up in Toronto through a portal a mad scientist created. He and Diana later learned one of his portal went off course, and scooped up Java from 20,000 years ago, and deposited him in the present.

"The first tool builders," Hephaestus spoke, "although this near the heart of a volcano, only I can tolerate it...me and cyclopes that is." He looked over and saw Diana panicked look. "Don't worry; I rarely need the help of Cyclopes in my forges."

"You're little set-up almost fried us!" Marvin interjected.

"Marvin, calm down," Harold spoke, and walked over to Hephaestus, and looked over to where he seemed to be forging a blade. "Didn't know there were anymore Grecian heroes going out on quests anymore."

"There aren't," Hephaestus said, "but while you Center folk are dealing with your "paranormal concerns", as you call them, the Gods have been busy themselves." Seeing everyone's confused looks, he explained. "Ever since humanity began becoming independent, able to take care of it's own problems, the Gods of nearly all the religions have isolated themselves in their own domains, each connected to a single, higher plane of existence, while others like me prefer to work on Earth. We've dealt with problems like conflicting religions, and believe it or not, Gods from other planets."

"That's a bit hard to believe," Diana spoke, able to stand on her own, "I mean, it seems impossible to me that Gods are still waging war with other Gods, even from outer space."

"Diana, you think nearly everything we come across is impossible, or try to label it with some logical conclusion," Martin spoke, "although you are right: it's quite hard to believe."

"Godly affairs are very hard to comprehend," Hephaestus said, almost in resignation. "But you aren't here to hear stories, aren't you?"

"Yes and No," Harold responded, "there's a sorcerer who is trying to unlock the door to Typhon's prison."

"...I guess people have been going missing," Hephaestus spoke.

"If I'm right, you built the doors that keep him locked away under Etna," Harold spoke, "so you know what it takes to open it."

"I destroyed the key a long time ago," he explained, " so he could never be let out..." He sighed, "but enough human life force drained and fed into the door should be able to open it enough for Typhon to forcibly bust out, killing the people whose life force is being drained in the process. Even the strongest magic can be broken that way."

Diana gasped. _All those people were going to be sacrificed, _she thought, ..._to let Typhon out? _"But if you can force Typhon back into his prison, and destroy the magic being used to drain the people's lives, you can stop him."

"And that's why Olivia told me to have you forge something...special order." He spoke. "You know which weapon I'm talking about."

Hephaestus smiled. "As the clouds gather over Mount Etna, look to the sky. When you hear the thunder, call Zeus' name."

"Why does he have to do that?" Marvin spoke. "Can't you give us the weapon we need now?"

"Preparing for such a desperate situation requires time." Hephaestus stated to the boy. "Besides, usually when I forge this kind of weapon, it goes to one of the Gods."

"Thank you for your time, Hephaestus," Harold stated, "now, we'll be leaving."

"Oh, by the way," Hephaestus mentioned, and everyone turned to face him again, "I heard from Hades that a soul recently escaped from his branch of the Underworld. If this sorcerer is the same guy, expect Hades to drop by once you defeat him."

Diana shivered; meeting the God of the Dead wasn't something she ever expected to do. Hephaestus noticed all of them going to the stairs, and raised his eyebrows. "You don't have to climb all the way to the top," he stated, and everyone looked back at him. Diana breathed a sigh of relief, "We really don't have to?" She didn't really feel like climbing all the way back up to the entrance.

"Of course not," he spoke, as if he sound humoured. "All I to do is this."

He snapped his fingers, and the group vanished from his sights. "I can just imagine the look on their faces..." He allowed himself a chuckle, then turned back to his forge, in preparation for Typhon's attempted break-out...

Diana quickly turned her head in disbelief. One moment, they were inside a volcano, and an instant after Hephaestus snapped his fingers, they were outside. And not just outside; they were in Sicily, Italy, to be exact, which was right next door to Mount Etna. "How'd he-"

"Awesome," Martin said excitedly, "did we just get teleported by a God?"

"Transported is more accurate," Harold spoke, "teleportation has speed; transportation is instantaneous."

"So, what now?" Java asked.

Harold looked off to the mountain in the distance. Storm clouds were gathering, as if the weather itself anticipated Typhon's awakening. "We make our way to Mount Etna," he spoke, and gestured to Martin's U-Watch, "after we make a call to Olivia."

Martin quickly pressed a few buttons, and soon after, M.O.M's face appeared on a projected screen. She appeared to have been looking talking to someone when he interrupted. "Well, how did it go?"

"We met Hephaestus," Harold spoke, "and he's agreed to make the weapon. As for where we are, he's already taken the liberty of transporting us to Sicily, right by Mount Etna."

"Hm, I suspected that Hephaestus would transport you there," she said knowingly, "this is a pretty desperate case for both humans and the Olympian Gods. Oh, and Billy's already got your package."

"I see," he spoke, unaware of a portal opening behind him. "How soon will he be here?"

"I'm right here," a small voice spoke up. What caused Martin and Co to jump and shout in shock, Harold straightened like a board with his teeth clenched in surprise. Panting a little, he turned to see a short teenager with a small mohawk and buck teeth smiling at him, but he knew it was Billy.

"Do you do that all the time," Harold said exasperated; unlike Martin and Co, Harold never had the pleasure of having Billy as a messenger back in his days. To tell the truth, Olivia found him (when he was still Ganthar), locked in a cage deep inside the Center. Seeing how he wanted to change, she released Ganthar, and through many sessions, he became the Billy everyone knew.

"I like being punctual," he said, and passed Harold a sword sheath, "but are you sure you need that?"

"I'm not taking any chances in this case," Harold told him. "This sorcerer can create a Minotaur; who knows how many other creatures he could conjure up. Better to be prepared than caught off-guard."

"Okay then," Billy said, and walked into an alley where a portal to the Center was waiting, "good luck."

Olivia chuckled. "Punctual as always. You better get going to; global sensors are indicating a massive increase in magical energy around Mount Etna. Your sorcerer has started to move."

"Thanks, Olivia," Harold said, but before he hung up, curiosity got the better of him. "By the way," he asked, "what did you do for Hephaestus that made him owe you a favour?"

It seemed to Harold that Olivia blushed, and he knew when she was flustered. "Well...I once had to save his immortal neck, and...well, I had to sort something out between him, his wife and Ares."

Harold's eyebrows arched; Aphrodite was the Goddess of Love, and Hephaestus' wife, but she had an immortal affair with Ares. To hear Olivia talk about that while blushing... "Olivia...?"

"It was just a common scuffle between them," Olivia spoke, shaking her head, "but believe me when I say this: dealing with Aphrodite was a pain, and making sure Ares didn't do anything during our..." she looked to the side of the screen nervously, "date, was hell." She shook her head and sighed. "I guess I'll tell you over dinner tonight. In the mean time, I'm sending somebody over as soon as we're done talking." Then she hung up.

An awkward silence enveloped them. "A date with Ares," Harold said, shaking his head, "19 years, and I still don't know everything about her earlier days in the Center."

"Who knew M.O.M could be such a catch when she was younger," Martin spoke, "I mean, it isn't every day you get to date a-"

_Ka-pow! _Martin become on the receiving end of a slap from Diana. "This isn't the time for that! Right now, we need to get to Mount Etna."

"But what's this about sending someone over?" Marvin seemed to scowl. "Having an extra person will only slow us down."

"Or guarantee success," Harold said, and looked around to find a Center jeep waiting for them. "It looks like Olivia was expecting us to pop up here."

"That or she told Hephaestus to send us to this spot," Diana muttered, as they all got in the van.

"I promise you Isaac, nothing happened between me and Ares," M.O.M said nervously, "and on top of that, it was long before I met your father."

"Really?" Isaac asked amused, never having heard any specific details about his mother's past before meeting his Dad, and out of the blue, he just heard she once dated a _**God. **_"Then why were you blushing when explaining it?"

M.O.M seemed to turn even redder. "Well...back then, just seeing Ares sort of made me weak in the knees...but you'd have to see him to believe it." She took a deep breath, and her voice dropped an octave, her blush gone. "It wasn't until after everything was said and done that I found out Aphrodite was working her magic on me," she spoke, sounding angry, "and after that, the two went through one of their break-ups, and Hephaestus didn't have to worry about Ares butting in on her anymore."

"So...Aphrodite was dating Ares, but she tried to use her magic on you when Hephaestus had you intervene, and you got set up on a date with Ares?"

"Both she and Ares were bored, so they tried to mess around with me," M.O.M stated. "Thankfully, I was able to resist her magic's effects, partly due to my relatively cold behaviour back then. When it didn't work, their relationship fell apart temporarily. I'm not sure, but they probably are back together behind Hephaestus' back by now."

"I see," Issac said curiously. An instant later, his face became serious. "Now, let's get back to what we were discussing earlier."

"...Yes, I guess we should." Olivia spoke softly. She had made a promise to Diana to not let anyone know of her betrayal, but since Octavia was obviously not bound by such an agreement, she thought she should tell Isaac now.

"Why did Diana betray the Center?"

Olivia flinched; she preferred to think that Diana was deceived by Octavia Paine, but the coldness of Isaac's words was shocking, particularly since they were about Diana. "When the C.O.R.E computer made the scores and I handed them out, Diana was marked off as in need of improvement, due to the number of times she was either taken by the monster, or slipped up on her own accord. I knew when properly motivated, the case was far different, but the negative ended up out-weighing the positive."

"And you simply read off the paper, right?" Isaac questioned.

"Yes," Olivia admitted, "still, every evaluation has my own opinions inserted into it. She was rather frustrated and angry when Martin got a higher score than her."

"So she joined Octavia in an effort to repair her wounded pride," Isaac suddenly said, "right?"

M.O.M glanced away; it slightly unnerved her whenever Isaac acted coldly about something...or someone. She sometimes felt it was...a result of her not being there for him when he was a child. "Isaac, I tried my best myself to understand Diana's decisions and actions...but in the end, it was a severe mistake she made."

"Mom," Isaac said brusquely, "me thinking I could kill Sousuke on my own was a mistake." As he stated this, he sub-consciously ran his hand across the scar the elder Miyabe once inflicted upon him, not more than a month before he officially re-united. "Diana siding with Octavia, unintentionally taking part in creating a creature that nearly destroyed the Center – that's catastrophe."

M.O.M stood up angrily. Isaac had managed to cross the line when he said his near-death was nothing compared to Diana's mistake that nearly destroyed the Center. "Isaac, that's a little too far," she shouted, "the Center can be re-built; your life can't! Comparing the two situations is nearly impossible!"

"Maybe I did go over the line a bit," Isaac fired back, "but I don't think you are one to talk; you abandoned your family to serve as the Center head."

Olivia collected her thoughts, not wanting another emotional out-burst, sat down, and told Isaac: "When I took over at the Center, I was the only one who had the experience to do so. On top of that, I knew initiating a purge of Algernon's people was necessary for both Tatsuki's and your safety. Even though it did have consequences..." She went silent.

Isaac knew very well what the consequences were: it was shocking how many Center agents were directly linked to Algernon's agenda, both on and off-world. At least two-thirds of the Center personnel were expunged from the Center before it was clean of Algernon's influence, and those that were expunged split off into two groups: those that followed Algernon and Proteus, and those who went with Octavia. Isaac noticed this, and went quiet. "Isaac," she finally said, "what's the real reason why you're angry?"

Isaac pondered for a moment, and he stood up. "I guess...I never thought that Diana could have ever been so selfish. I thought something like that would be far below her, but to hear Octavia say it out-right, and how I knew she was telling the truth..." He now felt ashamed at his behaviour.

M.O.M stood up, and placed a hand on her son's shoulder. "Isaac, you were apart from her for over 7 years; that's a lot of time for anyone to change. You were also both children back then, and have grown up in completely different settings." _And we still haven't told you everything, _she thought, her hand tightening on his shoulder, _Isaac... _"Diana deeply regretted her decision, Isaac," M.O.M told him, "and, in a way, I still think she does. Ever since then, she's worked even harder for the Center, and I think it's because she might be trying to atone for what happened still."

Isaac was silent. He was so angry about the possibility that Diana willingly betrayed the Center, that he hadn't stopped to think about how Diana felt. "...I guess you're right."

M.O.M smiled fondly at her son. "I suggest you rest a little before I send you to help them," she spoke, "you probably need it."

As he left the room, she suddenly became faint, and she nearly lost her balance, but she managed to steady herself. Placing a hand to her face, she thought: _What's wrong with me,_ she thought, _emotional out-bursts, dizzy spells. I haven't felt this way...since..._

A thought dawned on her, one she could barely believe. _Is it possible that...? _She put in a call to the infirmary for an appointment later, wanting to see if she was falling ill...or something else.


	6. Behold the Child of Gaea

Behold the Child of Gaea

At the foot of Mount Etna, a white van pulled up. "Here we are," Harold, who was in the driver seat at the time, spoke, "Mount Etna."

To say that the mountain was big is a slight understatement. It was the biggest mountain in the entirety of Europe, and one of the most active volcanoes. Even now, the group could see smoke billowing from the far side of the mountain.

"It seems like," Diana spoke fearfully, "it's about to have an eruption." She didn't want to be caught in the middle of a volcanic eruption.

"A flank eruption," Harold spoke, and suddenly the ground shook, startling Diana. "Some earthquakes usually come with such eruptions," Harold explained to Diana, "but I don't think they usually are felt on this side of the mountain."

"Which means what," Marvin demanded.

"I think he means that Typhon," Martin interjected, "is waking up."

Before Marvin could rebuke, Harold spoke. "Martin's correct; Typhon must be sensing someone trying to break him free, and he's getting restless. This also means we've got even bigger problems."

"How big?" Java asked.

"Hephaestus probably forgot this," Harold theorized, "but since Typhon is under a volcano, releasing him could cause the entire mountain to blow simultaneously, both flank and summit."

"And we're toast," Martin stated, as another earthquake hit.

"Well that's just great," Marvin said sarcastically, "first a monster, now volcanic eruptions?"

Harold slightly paled as he looked outside. "And volcanic ash."

Diana noticed it too: the wind was blowing in this direction, so volcanic ash was being carried. She also noticed the sky changing colours, and to her horror, ash coming from the summit.

"...Martin, get the safety gear out of the back," Harold spoke to Martin, "we'll need it."

Harold then pressed on the pedal of the car, and they were off. A built-in sensor in the van would lead them to a high-density magic zone, where the gate would be. Fifteen minutes later, he got a call, and stopped the van.

When he answered it, M.O.M's face appeared. "Harold, I assume you know what's going on with the mountain."

"Yes," Harold spoke. "Martin's getting the safety gear out right now."

"Good," M.O.M spoke, "I can't come over myself, so I've sent someone else. Don't move from that spot...And Harold," she suddenly said, "...Be careful."

"I will, Olivia," he said softly, and broke off the call. At that moment, more ash fell from the sky, a lot of it.

"How will the agent get to us without inhaling all this ash," Diana said worryingly.

Harold looked out to the right side of the van, and immediately told Diana: "Diana, move over, and open the van door, NOW!"

She did as she was told, and a moment later, Isaac jumped straight into the van. He exhaled heavily.

"YOU!" Marvin yelled.

"So much for a warm welcome," he said, inhaling deeply, "I had to hold my breath while I ran to here. So, Dad," Isaac asked, "not what you expected?"

Harold sighed. "It went from routine to end-of-world scenario mission in moments. It went from chasing a minotaur," he narrated, "to having to stop a Titan. No, it's not quite the warm-up I was expecting at all."

"Believe me," Diana said, remembering one of her's and Martin's first missions, "me and Martin were just a couple of weeks into our work as Center agents when we dealt with a threat of this level."

Isaac spared a glance in Marvin's direction, and he seemed...angry, about that. _Is it envy or frustration, _Isaac pondered, _he's been at the Center for a while, but he hasn't dealt with anything that major until now. _He snapped out of his pondering when Diana placed a hand on his arm. She was now sitting across from him "I thought you were dealing with a special assignment," Diana asked. "How come you're done so fast?"

Martin noted Marvin gritting his teeth at Diana's gesture towards Isaac, but what he noticed more was the silent look on Isaac's face, and how he didn't...look at Diana when he spoke, almost as if he was distant. "There was an escapee from the Center cells, but I've already taken care of her."

"Her..." Diana muttered, and Martin heard her voice lower an octave, "You mean Octavia, don't you?"

Martin froze. _What if Octavia told Isaac Diana once joined her, _he thought, deadly accurate in his observation, _and that is why Isaac is so...quiet. But M.O.M said it was personal to Isaac, but she affected Diana more..._ Before he could ponder further, he answered. "Yes," Isaac spoke, "but what she said isn't of concern at the moment."

"Just who is this-" Marvin asked, but Harold interrupted. "As Isaac said, it isn't of anyone's concern at the moment, including yours." Glancing at a panel, he spoke. "The gate to Typhon's prison is near, and considering the size of it, it should be easy to spot." He looked at Diana, and look on her face told him one thing: she knew that Isaac was keeping a secret from her.

Harold wasn't kidding when he said it was easy to spot: it was carved straight into the mountain face. When she saw a pile of huge boulders off to the sides, Diana realized: no one saw it before, because the mountain literally moved to cover it.

"It-it's HUGE!" Diana spoke, her voice almost high-pitched.

"Typhon was said to reach the stars," Harold spoke in wonder, "it's not literal, but considering the size of these doors, he's still gargantuan."

A small flash of light could be seen ahead. "Everyone, get the masks on," Harold spoke, and Martin handed out a gas mask to everyone, "the moment we get near there, get out and move! The sorcerer's already starting the ritual." Harold put on his gas mask, and pushed the pedal hard.

The van launched off, and within two minutes, they could make out a terrifying scene: the kidnapped people were chained to a series of stone pillars, and a robed man was dragging a bound child, no more than eight years old, towards the pillar closest to the door. He tossed him towards the pillar, and the chain contorted to bind the child to the pillar. A moment later, a sickly green magical shield appeared around the pillar, presumably to keep the sacrifices from suffocating in the ash. The man, however, wasn't even bothered by it.

"We don't have much time," Harold yelled, putting the van to a screaming halt, "let's move!"

Immediately, everyone got out of the van, and ran towards the masked man. Before they got 200 metres, what appeared to be a purple comet crashed in front of them, and a roar that was familiar to Harold erupted from the purple mist.

"JUMP TO THE SIDES!"

The moment everyone did so, a Minotaur erupted from the mist, and barrelled towards where they were.

"Forgive my creation," the hooded figure said, moving towards them, "he's quite true to the actual Minotaur."

Diana looked back at the menacing man-bull. It was huge, about eight feet tall, and its horns looked like they could run clean through a normal person. She turned towards the sorcerer. "Why are you doing this?" She demanded. "Don't you know how dangerous that creature is?"

" 'Creature'," the man said mockingly. "Typhon is one of the most powerful beings to ever roam the Earth. He's beyond even the Olympian Gods! I shall have vengeance for my imprisonment in the Underworld!"

That basically confirmed it; this psychopath was Hades' missing inmate.

He smashed his staff into the ground, and all the kidnapped people began to scream, as a purple energy seemed to leech them of their life.

"STOP THAT NOW!" Martin demanded, getting out his X-Rod.

The man smiled coldly. "I'm afraid not child. You'll have to do so over my dead body."

Martin was in no mood for a smart remark (considering the sorcerer recently escaped being dead), and neither did the sorcerer have the time to wait for one. He held up his hands, and Martin noticed the book chained to his clothes. "BEHOLD THE LAST TITAN! BEHOLD THE CHILD OF GAEA! BEHOLD...TYPHON!"

The gate was punched from the other side, knocking everyone off their feet. When Isaac looked up, he froze. "What...the hell...?"

The door had opened, just a crack in comparison to its huge size, but everyone's attention, was upon what was behind the crack. They couldn't see it clearly, but they did see a massive face, and a giant, gold eye. And this was only half of it's face being shown. A multitude of roars and hisses could be heard behind it, and a deep grumble from the face. As it inhaled, a gust of wind threatened to pull everyone in. When it roared, it was excruciatingly loud, blowing away the ash on the landscape, flattening everyone who was standing. Martin could have sworn he was rendered temporarily deaf just by the sheer magnitude of the sound.

That was the monstrosity known as Typhon, the youngest Titan. "How..." Diana spoke fearfully, "how do we fight something like that?"

"We won't be able to," Martin said, pulling his sister up, "so we have to stop that maniac from breaking him out."

"I'm already on it!" Marvin bellowed, and pulling out his own X-rod, he charged the man, shooting a net at him.

Isaac suddenly felt it; magical force gathered around the sorcerer, and in his hand. He yelled out. "MARVIN, STOP RUSHING HIM!"

It was too late; the net disintegrated the moment it touched a shield, and with just a flick of his wrist, Marvin was sent sailing back.

"Marvin!" Diana yelled, and ran towards Marvin, who was sent rolling on a ash-covered field. Before she could reach him, the sorcerer sent off several purple comets, one crashing into Diana's path. She skidded to a halt, and out of the mist emerged a snake-like woman with two snake tail trunks in place of her legs. As it lashed out, Diana jumped back.

"Diana," Martin yelled, and tossed Diana an I-Cutter, and she stared down the _dracaenae _woman. Out of the mist of the other spots, more terrifying creatures from Greek mythology emerged. "If you don't mind," the sorcerer spoke, sickeningly casual, "I have a Titan to release." He walked away towards the pillars, specifically the child he recently bound. _I have a special surprise for the elder, _he thought, remembering what his magical eyes saw beneath the surface, _I can't take any chances with him. _He closed the book he was holding.

Harold couldn't explain it, but he knew that child was different from the others. It was faint, but a small black aura surrounded him. It was...similar to what he saw around Hephaestus, only colder, like death.

"Isaac," Harold asked in concern, "do you need-"

"Already brought a weapon," Isaac said, and whipped out the Electromagnetic pistol Colin once made for him to 'test'.

Martin's eyes lit up in curiosity; the gun Isaac had appeared to be exactly the same as that guy who...

He had no more time to ponder, because the fight started, and he had a Harpy on top of him. She/it/whatever you can call a magical construct, was more bird than bird-woman, and in the place of a mouth, had a beak, ringed with teeth. He swatted it away with the X-Rod multiple times, but it kept coming back like an annoying fly. "**Let me feast on your flesh!" **It spoke.

"I don't think so," Martin said, and brought his staff down on its head, downing it for the moment.

He turned toward Diana, and noted that the dragon woman was already missing a hand and part of one of it's tails. As it struck, Diana rolled out of the way, and shot it, knocking back the creature. Martin smiled. _After a very bumpy first year, _he said, remembering how many times he had to save her, and she called for help, _she's gotten the hang of things, and has even gotten much better. _It was a fact that the number of times she needed rescuing decreased substantially during the past year, and Martin actually liked the thought that she was growing into her own.

A unpleasant chirping sound drew his attention, and he blocked with the X-rod just in time before the Harpy's beak had bitten into him. He booted the harpy in the stomach, and kicked it in the chin (or what counted as a chin). He got up and smashed the X-rod into it's head **hard, **apparently enough to scatter it into mist. Martin was shocked; it was just a very brief moment, but...he had an intense desire to kill, and technically, he did...it scared him immensely. The images of his dreams flooded back to him, but he quickly dispelled them. _I'm__** NOT **__that demon from my dreams!_

A little ways away, Java was wrestling a hellhound, and he kept on hitting the monstrous dog on the head, shouting, "Bad doggy! Bad!" When it was sufficiently dazed, he picked it up and tossed it into a neighbouring Fury that Isaac was having trouble shooting out of the air. When they hit, Isaac pumped two rounds into both creatures, as they dissolved into the purple mist that created them. He then looked back at Martin's pale face. He was stunned when he smashed the X-rod clean through the Harpy's head, and he remembered Martin explaining his nightmares. Something deeper was going on with Martin. That was the least of their problems, because soon he and Java were looking straight at the Minotaur...

Marvin, to his own frustration, had to deal with an Orthus (two-headed dog), and no matter how he swung, it would dodge, and/or one of the heads would grab his X-rod, forcing him into a tug-of-war. Soon after the second one, Martin intervened. "Hey, this is my fight!" Marvin objected.

"We don't have time to bicker," Martin shouted back, "and besides, it's got two heads, so our best bet is to have two of us."

It was simple, but a very logical idea coming from Martin. Gritting his teeth, Marvin agreed. Still, it was tough enough, but made much easier, since even if it had two heads, it couldn't split into two. They tangled for a bit with the Orthus, and Martin managed to get behind, shoot a net to catch it, and activated the shock-net. With a dog like this, he wasn't taking any chances. He looked over to where Diana was to see that she had managed to decapitate the dragon woman, and it crumbled to purple dust. He ran over to her. "Good job, Di."

"You too, Martin," Diana hesitated to say, panting, "but...it was kinda scary."

"How?"

"Martin, when you hit that harpy..." Diana became silent for a moment. "...don't you remembered how you screamed? It was blood-curdling."

"Yeah, I heard it too," Marvin said callously, "you were like a mad-man."

"This isn't time for that," Diana said swiftly, but Martin saw it: Diana was scared of what happened; she was, for a moment, scared of him. "Right now, Mr. Alexander has a big problem."

Big wasn't enough to cover it. Harold was panting heavily, blood dripping from a claw mark across his chest, as he eyed his adversary. Out of all the creatures the sorcerer created, this one was the most dangerous, and powerful. It was a copy of the Nemean Lion, whose fur was completely bullet-proof, sword-proof, anything-proof. _He sent this creature straight at me, _Harold thought. _Is it possible he knows about...it? _He looked at the katana in his hand, which was useless against this invulnerable foe.

Another colossal bang from the doors interrupted his thoughts, and swept him and Martin and Co (and the creatures) off their feet from the mere shockwave. _We're running out of time!_ He realized, seeing the life force of the kidnapped draining more and more into the gates, with the boy's black aura seemingly more energized than the rest.

"Mr. Alexander," Diana yelled out, and he saw them running towards him. "We came to help."

Martin froze the moment he saw the blood from Harold's wound. Diana saw Martin's reaction, and became worried. "Martin, are you all right?"

Realizing he was sweating, he wiped his forehead. "Yeah, I'm...I'm fine."

"What's wrong," Marvin said, bitter about Martin getting the last hit on the dog, "scared of blood?"

"Stop acting so juvenile," Harold yelled, "and GET DOWN!"

He tackled all three of them to the ground, and the Nemean lion soared over them.

"Get off me," Marvin demanded, and Harold did just that, and he pulled Diana up, who was temporarily winded.

"Hey, he just saved us," Martin shouted at him, "don't get so angry."

"Lion first," Harold spoke, "shouting later."

Diana stared at the lion, remembering her Greek Myths. The Nemean lion was completely invulnerable, and she doubted they could get close enough to strangle it, like Heracles did. As it roared, she saw into it's fleshy mouth. _Fleshy mouth? _She pondered, and hit upon an idea.

"Mr. Alexander," she told him, "it's risky, but I know how to beat this thing."

"How," Marvin questioned.

Harold looked at the lion, and stared at it's mouth. "You mean we have to aim for it's mouth?"

"Yes," Diana spoke, "it's fur is invulnerable, but it's mouth (obviously) isn't covered in fur, so it should be a weak point."

"That's crazy," Marvin said.

"But our only chance," Martin told Marvin, "and we need to wrap this up fast, because Isaac and Java aren't doing so well." He pointed in their direction, and as he did so, Isaac's gun flew to their feet, as did an oxygen mask...


	7. The King of Gods' Weapon

The King of Gods' Weapon

The minotaur was immensely strong, and was able to knock both Isaac and Java into the air simultaneously, and caused Isaac to let go of his gun as it was sent flying. The moment he landed, he saw the Minotaur charge him. _So fast! _Isaac thought, but he was already exhausted from their earlier skirmish, and the Minotaur's fist caught him straight in his wound. He screamed loudly, and blood poured out of his mouth, and he was sent flying, the sorcerer about 20 feet away.

"It seems my creation sees you as a greater threat, boy," the sorcerer yelled to Isaac, "I guess it's because it sees beneath to what you are, the same as that man."

"_What I am",_ Isaac thought, _Octavia said the same thing. What the hell does it-_ His thoughts stopped as he began choking. It was only then he realized: his mask was knocked off; he was inhaling the ash. The minotaur walked towards him, and stomped on his chest, cracking ribs. Amidst his screaming, he heard a voice calling his name...

"Isaac," Diana screamed out. She saw Java try to pull the creature away, but it elbowed him twice in the stomach, knocking him aside.

"Isaac..." Martin said, unusually silent and pale, and Harold wondered what the heck was going on with Martin.

Marvin let out an irritated "tch". "So much for his help; he's a goner now."

Harold's patience officially met it's limit. He walked towards Marvin, and punched him, catching Diana and Martin's attention. "What the heck-"

Harold picked up Isaac's gun, and turned the power level up to 10, and turned towards the roaring Nemean Lion. "My son's not dying on MY watch!" As the lion charged, Harold emptied one super-charged EM pulse into the Nemean Lion's hide. It roared in pain as the bolt even defied it's invulnerable hide. He marched towards the creature, lifted up it's head by the hair, and rammed his Katana down it's throat. It dissipated into mist.

He looked back at disbelieving faces, and passed them as he made a running start towards the Minotaur, holding his Katana in two hands. The minotaur lifted it's fist, preparing to crush Isaac's head. But Harold was faster. In one blindingly fast and powerful swing, he sliced off the Minotaur's hand mid-punch. He kicked the beast in the stomach, knocking it back, taking it's foot off Isaac. He delivered a cut across both of it's legs, causing to roar in pain as it collapsed to it's knees.

It lifted it's hand to counter-attack. Harold flipped his katana down-ward, and stabbed clean through the Minotaur's skull. Almost as if in after-thought, he turned to see the Orthus free of it's net, and as it leaped for him, he casually bisected it, and another monster evaporated into mist.

He sheathed his katana, and with a tender care that contrasted his earlier tranquil fury, he lifted his son up on his shoulder, and beckoned Java to come help him.

For what they saw, Diana couldn't describe. "...Three monsters...all by himself...in less than a minute."

"What kind of monster is this guy," Marvin spoke, fearing the white-haired man walking towards them.

"I think..." Martin answered, in awe of the former retired agent. "We saw a sneak-peek...of what he was back in the day."

Diana noticed that Isaac still didn't have his mask, she picked it up, ran towards Isaac, and pressed it to his face. "Diana, Martin," Harold asked them, "take my son to the van, now."

They complied immediately. As Isaac hung from both Diana and Martin's bodies, he noticed Martin was pale, and he seemed to grow paler every time he looked at him. Isaac registered the taste of blood in his mouth, and remembered how Martin's dreams were filled with blood, as he described them. _The blood...reminds him of his nightmares._

A few moments later, Martin and Diana put Isaac in the truck. She held tightly onto Isaac's hand, and when he nodded in re-assurance, she let go, and ran back to where Harold was.

"What now?" Diana asked, noticing the clouds up above, with a rumbling thunder that seemed deafened by Typhon's growls and hisses, and the volcano's ever approaching eruption. _When you hear the thunder, _she recalled, _call Zeus's name._

"We find a way to distract that sorcerer," Harold spoke, growing nervous as Typhon very slowly but surely pushed the gates further open, allowing them to see his entire face, and many of the hundreds of dragon heads that lined his arms and shoulders. It was a truly horrifying sight to behold, and nearly paralysed them in fear.

"And we also need to free the kidnapped people," Martin spoke, "but how?"

"I don't know," Marvin spoke irritated, "the last time I tried to charge that guy, he knocked me back effortlessly."

Java looked up. "Sky!"

Everyone looked at him, but Diana knew what he meant; Java had very good hearing, and he must have heard the thunder too.

"Yes, Java," she said, patting his face, causing the caveman to blush a little, "the sky."

She stepped forward, thinking: _This is for you, Isaac,_ and shouted: "ZEUS, GOD OF THUNDER, LEND ME YOUR POWER!"

The answer was azure bolt of lightning that crashed down right in front of her.

"DIANA!" Martin screamed as the lightning bolt struck, blinding them.

"DON'T WORRY MARTIN! HEPHAESTUS DELIVERED!" Harold screamed, covering his eyes.

"DELIVERED WHAT?" Marvin screamed.

They heard the sorcerer scream in pain as another explosion was heard. When they opened their eyes, Martin saw it, but he hardly could believe it: Diana stood there, unharmed, panting, and in her hand held a jagged spear made of pure energy. Martin understood Hephaestus' phrase now, and what he made. The same weapon had beaten Typhon before; the same weapon that beat Kronos. His sister was holding Zeus' famous lightning bolt.

"Diana," Martin yelled, and they ran towards her.

"Diana okay?" Java asked.

She lifted up the bolt, and smiled. "This much power...it's amazing!"

Harold nodded. Olivia told him: "_Should a mortal hold one of Zeus' bolts, they shall be blessed with his power. But...as with all godly weapons and power, they can corrupt the soul, if they aren't strong enough."_

The last part worried Harold a little, and looked at Diana. "Diana...are you really okay?"

Diana looked towards the sorcerer, and everyone's eyes followed suit. The man was quite charred, but still alive, considering he was a spirit escapee from the Underworld. Diana walked towards him. "Diana..." Harold said in concern. She stopped, knelt down...and picked up the book the sorcerer had, and it was only then when he noticed it was missing from his chain.

"DAMN YOU, GIRL!" He screamed, and Martin watched in disgust as he seemed to regenerate.

"Ugh, is that guy a zombie?"

Java covered his mouth, hoping not to throw up.

"You didn't take him out," Marvin questioned fiercely.

"I had to focus hard to **not **kill him," Diana fired back suddenly. "This bolt, it...it's almost intoxicating to hold, but so empowering at the same time." She looked at it, and briefly smiled, her breathing sounding almost ecstatic. Then she stopped smiling, and presented the bolt to Harold. "Diana, what are you doing?" Marvin demanded.

"There's a reason why M.O.M only let Harold know what this thing was," Diana told him forcibly, "and just by holding it, I know why. It's so powerful, it makes you **not **want to let go of it; makes you want to use it's power for yourself...it makes you want to become a God..." She pulled back the bolt a little towards her, but she let Harold grab it.

"That is the temptation of magic, Diana," Harold told her, "and how easily it can corrupt humans. That is how druids, witches, and warlocks come to be. The fact you are willing to give it to me shows how strong you are."

Diana smiled at Harold, and let the bolt go into his hands. "And what about you?" Marvin spoke, almost insulted.

Harold nodded, looking at the bolt. "It is kind of tempting, but I wouldn't want to keep this thing." _Besides, _he thought to himself, _I've already got a permanent power. Not that I use it much lately._ "It's for Zeus, not any mortals."

Another bang echoed, and Harold realized how short of time they had left. "Diana, Martin," Harold instructed, "find a spell to stop this process."

"What about me?" Marvin demanded.

He glared coldly at Marvin, the lighting from Zeus' bolt sparking in his eyes. He glanced back at the sorcerer, who had produced more monsters out of purple mist. "You **and Java,"** he said with emphasis, "will make sure they aren't interrupted."

"And you?" Martin questioned.

Harold smiled, tossed the bolt up, and caught it. "I'll go to town on this sorcerer." At that moment, the Sorcerer began chanting a spell in ancient Greek. "Go, NOW!" Harold ordered, and they ran off to the pillars. Harold noticed the stream of monsters heading towards them, and with a flick of the wrist, blasted them into oblivion, leaving behind purple mist as their remnants. The sorcerer finished, and cast a green flame towards him. Harold responded in kind with a bolt of lightning.

Quickly, both Diana and Martin skimmed through the book, the U-watch scanning every character and translating it, looking for the correct spell.

"Are you two done yet," Marvin asked, as he and Java struggled with the construct monsters.

Martin sighed. "We're going as fast as we can!"

A few pages later, Diana stopped. "We found it!" Diana spoke, pointing Martin to the line.

"That's great," Martin spoke, and they began speaking in unison the incantation. The barriers flickered and fluxed, and within moments, the people started to get colour back into their faces. The life-draining spell was broken...But the sorcerer laughed.

"YOU'RE STILL TOO LATE! TYPHON STILL HAS ENOUGH STRENGTH FOR FORCIBLY OPEN THE DOOR THE WAY IT IS NOW!"

Harold looked up, and noticed he was right: Typhon was still gradually opening the door. "Great," Marvin spoke in anger, "we go through all that trouble, but that guy's still getting out."

"I'm sorry, sorcerer," Harold spoke, "but he'll be staying in his prison!"

He cast the sorcerer aside with a lightning bolt, and stared up at Typhon. He was out enough that he could see it's face: a scaly, horrifying demon that glared down at him with solid gold eyes, and teeth bigger than houses. It roared, but Harold stood his ground. "Remember this?" He said, holding up the bolt. Recognizing it, he opened his mouth, the back of his throat lighting up.

"GET OUT OF THE WAY," Harold yelled to Martin and Co. Harold pulled his arm back, and thrust forwards with all his might. Lightning met hellfire as Typhon spewed sickly blue flames from his maw, scorching the landscape, and the up-draft caused by the two intense heat sources blew away the surrounding soot.

In the end, it came down to endurance. The lightning bolt was a near-infinite source of power, but Typhon's flames had exhausted themselves, and without resistance, the super-heated bolt of energy screamed down into Typhon's throat. The titan screamed in pain, his massive arms letting go of the doors.

"NOOOOOOO!" The sorcerer screamed in disbelief.

The moment he let go, the doors forcibly slammed themselves right into Typhon's face, knocking the Titan back into his prison under the mountain, and closed with a huge BANG that shook the ground. The locks on the doors re-established themselves, and within moments, the boulders that were off to the sides rolled back into place, and it became nothing more than the side of the mountain. Harold looked up, and the ash had stopped falling. They had stopped the world from coming to an end.

A rumbling that almost sounded like a voice suddenly bellowed down from the sky, and everyone looked up. "What was that?" Diana spoke.

Since it was directed at him, Harold was the only one who knew who was talking. "Yes, Zeus, and you're welcome," he began speaking. The rumbling continued. "Of course you can have the bolt. It's yours after all." Before anyone could blink, the lightning bolt shot a bolt into the sky all by itself, and vanished from Harold's hand. He looked at Martin and Co. "Gods are very picky about their belongings, apparently." He simply stated.

But their problems hadn't ended quite yet. Suddenly, behind Diana, the sorcerer wrapped his arm around her neck, and blasted Martin, Marvin and Java away, a bronze blade held above his arm, against Diana's throat. A yell from the van caught Harold's attention, and he saw a Fury toss Isaac out of the van, and stomp on his back. "Diana! Isaac!" Harold yelled.

"I wouldn't move, if I were you," the sorcerer sneered, "unless you want this girl's throat slit, and that boy crushed to death."

Harold gritted his teeth in frustration. "I told you," Marvin yelled, "I told Diana she should have incinerated that guy when she had the chance."

Harold glared at Marvin, but Martin seemed a bit calm. Suddenly, Harold remembered what Hephaestus said about Hades.

As if answering their thoughts, a scythe smashed out of the ground, and a black energy impaled the remaining constructs the sorcerer created. He paled, and his grip tightened on Diana, and Harold flinched when he saw a small trickle of blood come from Diana's neck due to the sword pressing against her skin. "L-lord Hades!"

A hand gripped the ground, and a figure pulled itself up. To Diana's surprise, Hades wasn't as she expected. Like Hephaestus, he seemed quite human in appearance...but she could smell death coming off of him.

"Diana Lombard," He suddenly spoke. "Hold. Still."

Martin wondered what Hades meant, and he noticed that Diana was a complete head and neck shorter than the sorcerer. He winced at the thought, this was going to be _very close._ He opened his eyes, and Diana's heart jumped when he saw Hades' eyes were completely black, except for the human skull that was in each eye. Suddenly, a black blur flew by, and Hades was no longer there. She had felt something pass right by the top of her head, and when she looked, her breath quickened in shock and disgust as the sorcerer's head simple rolled off, and his body dissolved into sand.

She moved forward, the sorcerer's arms dissolving to sand as she pushed away. All that was left was the form of a decayed, transparent man screaming inhumanly.

"_Damn you," _he cursed towards Hades. "_DAMN THE GODS!"_

"It's back to Tartarus for you." Hades spoke, and by simply turning his scythe, a chasm opened up, sending the sorcerer screaming inhumanly back to the Underworld.


	8. Aftermath

Aftermath

With the sorcerer put back under in Tartarus, everyone looked upon Hades nervously. Well, almost everyone. For Harold, you could say he'd seen death before. Marvin, was just annoyed at the ease he killed the Sorcerer.

"That's it?" Marvin interjected, miffed. "You let us go through all that trouble, only to have you kill him in two seconds? Why couldn't you have stopped him yourself?"

"Marvin, quiet!" Harold ordered.

Hades sighed. "Children these days have no manners at all. A simple thank you would suffice."

He looked over at the people chained to the pillars, and his eyes focused dead centre on the boy. "So you're why he needed less people than Hephaestus speculated."

The child cringed nervously, and Diana ran over to see if she could untangle the chains binding him.

"That won't be necessary, Diana Lombard," Hades spoke, and with a snap of his fingers, the chains unravelled on their own. Diana backed away as he did this, and with another snap of the fingers, to Diana's surprise, the civilians vanished in a black smoke...all except the boy. "What did you-" Diana tried to ask, only for Hades to raise his hand.

"Each God has their own unique way of transporting people," Hades stated, "you just saw mine. I also took the liberty of wiping their minds of the events starting from their capture. Their minds will fill in the rest."

Martin nodded in interest, and he turned to see Harold walking towards the van, or to be specific, towards Isaac, who was still on the ground. He put Isaac's arm around his shoulder, and helped him back into the van, and began walking back towards the group. When he turned back around, Hades was walking towards the boy.

He looked down at the boy, sighed, and took his hood off. "How many times have I told you: "Don't use your powers, or it will attract the wrong kind of attention?""

Everyone looked at the two confused; that child had met the God of the Underworld before? The child twiddled his fingers nervously, and looked down. "...Sorry, Daddy."

"D-" Diana shook her head in disbelief. "DADDY?"

"SAY WHAT?" Martin and Java yelped simultaneously.

_So that's what it was, _Harold thought, mystified at the rarity before him, _the child is a Demi-god._

"Wait a minute," Marvin spoke, "how did a God have a human kid? Particularly a God of _Death?_"

From Diana's perspective, Hades seemed to roll his eyes. "Perseus, Heracles, Achilles, Theseus, need I go on?" He said incredulously. "Many Greek heroes were the children of Gods, and my son, Selim, is living proof of that."

"Well, it seems he caused us a lot of trouble. And if he's half-God, how come he didn't deal with that guy earlier?" He shot a glare at Selim, and he cringed.

"Marvin," Diana abolished him, "he's only eight years, at least." She knelt down, and placed a hand on Selim's shoulder. "Were you scared, Selim?"

Selim simply nodded. Diana gave him a small smile. "I was a little scared too."

"Selim hasn't reached the age yet where he can use his power on a larger scale," Hades added, "because if he was at proper age, he'd have sent the sorcerer back himself." He put a hand on his son's shoulder, and Diana gave them space. "You should get back to your mother," he told Selim, and nodded his head in the direction of a shadow, "she's quite worried."

"Are you going to come back home soon, Daddy?" Selim questioned. "Mommy misses you too."

Harold looked upon the scene, and was reminded of his own family's past; a young Isaac would frequently ask M.O.M that when he spoke to her on the phone. It was right around twelve years of age where Isaac stopped asking, and simply accepted one fact: she only comes home when she decides to. However, there was one key difference: Isaac never knew, while this boy did.

Hades smiled warmly, which surprised Diana, considering his profession. "After I'm done here, I'll come back home." Selim's face lit up with a bright smile, and Hades guided him to the nearest shadow.

"What he doing?" Java asked.

"Something...god-like, maybe?" Martin answered.

Hades looked down at Selim, laid a hand within the shadow, and began to count: "3...2...1..."

Diana's (and everyone else's) jaws hit the floor when Selim jumped into the shadow, and simply _melted _into the shadow, or, at least that's what it seemed like he did.

"What the-" Diana exclaimed.

"How did-" Martin asked.

"What the heck was that?" Marvin demanded to know.

Harold sighed, shaking off his shock. "I suppose that for you, a shadow is similar to a portal, right?"

"Smart man, Harold Alexander," Hades spoke, but as he did, his tone became icy, and Diana backed further away from Hades, and he walked towards Harold.

Harold knew what was coming. Even when he was face-to-face with Hades, he remained perfectly calm. "Kids," Harold ordered Martin and Co, "get in the car, go back to the Center, and get Isaac some help...Now."

Martin and Co nodded, and headed for the van, while out of the corner of his eyes, he saw a look of grimace on Marvin's face.

"I see I'm well known," Harold spoke, out of ear-shot of the kids.

"Your kind is very well known to the keepers of the Dead," Hades spoke coldly, "very well indeed. Particularly, you and your ancient ancestor whom you take after."

"I know the details," Harold countered, "but is there any other reason for talking specifically to me?"

"You remember..._**him...**_don't you?" Hades questioned.

Harold averted his eyes; even 18 years later, _**that man **_still caused his blood to chill, even with him dead. "Why are you asking?" It was meaningless to ask; he already knew why.

"Someone," Hades spoke, "is apparently trying to bring him back. Mostly small things, nothing powerful enough to actually bring a person back, but maybe summon a demon. But I conversed with the Fates...it is almost as if someone is biding their time."

He looked at Harold, and the glare he gave Harold stabbed straight through his heart. "He will come back and your son will die!"

Harold inhaled shakily, and exhaled the same way. He knew it would happen from the letter, but to hear it delivered with such finality from a personification of death itself...was too much, even for him.

"I know what you are feeling, deep down in your mortal heart," Hades went on, "there must be someway I can avert this; I must be able to stop it from happening, somehow. Yet logic tells you to not interfere. Cold, hard logic tells you to let your son meet **an** end, and-".

He stopped speaking for a moment. Harold had his hand against Hades' throat, a pulsing blue energy coursing along the fingers. "Don't. Push. Your luck, Hades."

"It must be hard for you to accept," Hades said, showing sympathy for Harold's situation. "I've watched loved ones die for millenniums. Wives, children...it's almost painful outliving them, even if you are Death itself."

He pulled Harold's hand away from his throat. "Be thankful your family blood-line is unique among blood-lines. But, of course you know what I'm talking about." He walked over to a shadow, and vanished.

Harold looked down at his hands. He watched as a small tear fell into it. He fell to his knees, and cursed himself.

Hades...was right.


	9. Unexpected Happenings

Unexpected Happenings

"Is he going to be all right," Martin asked Dr. Gray.

Gray smiled. "Compared to some of the stuff I've treated in the past, this is nothing," he stated in a matter-of-fact manner. "The Center's healing technology should have him fixed up even before the day is out." Gray looked into the room at Isaac.

"Tch. What was M.O.M thinking," Marvin said brusquely, "sending an amateur like him as back-up?"

Gray went silent, and looked at Marvin. "Go on..."

"We didn't even need his help," he said sourly, "yet she felt we needed help."

"Since you have forgotten," Martin interjected, irritated, "you didn't do much either."

"Martin, please-" Diana tried to say, but Martin held up a hand. "I'm sorry, Diana," he said as normally as he could in this situation, "but it has to be said."

"I didn't do much," Marvin spoke up at the accusation. "I did more than that guy, and he was incapacitated."

"Maybe, but you needed my help to handle only one of the monsters," Martin reminded him, "while Isaac did quite fine on his own."

"Hey, I'm not the one who is in the infirmary!"

"You weren't the one who directly fought Typhon either!"

"If I hadn't held off those monster-" Marvin fired back.

"Why are you always leaving Java out of the equation?" Martin countered. "That's the second time you've done that, and-"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Diana yelled, and got between the two of them. "I was able to tolerate all this bickering earlier, but this has to stop!"

"But he-" Marvin tried to speak up, but Diana stopped him short. "Marvin, what's past, is the past. I'm thankful for Isaac's help, and you should be too."

Marvin gritted his teeth, and stomped away. As he passed M.O.M, she heard him mutter, "I'll be so happy when that freak is gone..."

M.O.M was quite tempted to reprimand him, since she was Isaac's mother, but let it slide, her concerns being on Isaac.

"How is he?" M.O.M asked.

"Well," Gray started, "he took quite a punch into the wound he received two weeks prior," he took careful consideration to note Diana's expression; it seemed she still blamed herself for what happened. "But that's not the problem. He inhaled some ash, and has several cracked ribs."

"I see," Olivia nodded, "nothing Center medicine can't handle?"

"Oli, you know me," Gray said, "he's already being fixed up as we speak". A beeping came from the ear-piece he wore, and pressing his finger on it, he acknowledged what was happening at the end, and hung up. "If you'll excuse me, I'll be in Magic decontamination. Apparently, an agent still has a tree branch for an arm after their recent mission."

The tone he used was so casual, everyone couldn't help but chuckle a little as he walked away, despite the nature of the contaminant. Magic decontamination, is precisely what it said on the box. They reversed the magics inflicted on Center agents, ones that didn't vanish after the threat was eliminated. It was kind of like a snap-back effect, when it came to most magics (or other such things, like Sauros). If the caster was either sealed away or destroyed, the effects of the magic reverses itself, since it doesn't have the time to become permanent, and because the caster is no longer present to keep the spell active. Martin and Diana had plenty of experience with such things, many times suffering from the magic themselves.

"I shouldn't have sent Isaac," M.O.M said in regret, "you could have handled it on your own."

"Come on, M.O.M," Martin interjected, "he really helped us out."

She inhaled and exhaled. "I guess you're right. I've been more worried than usual as of late."

"You usually aren't so emotional either," Diana said, remembering her out-burst earlier, "are you sure you're all right?" She asked this, although she felt she knew why M.O.M was worried. After all, Isaac was her son.

M.O.M looked around. "Where's Harold?"

"He was speaking with Hades last we saw him," Martin spoke.

"...That can't be good," M.O.M spoke, "although I was surprised by the news that he had a son." She looked past Martin, Diana and Java, and saw Harold standing there. "I was surprised as well," he spoke.

The moment she saw his face, Olivia knew something was wrong. Harold was...solemn. "...Martin, Diana, Java, stay here."

This earned her a confused look from the three agents. Usually when M.O.M wanted privacy, she ordered the three of them to go somewhere else, but this time, she just took Harold's arm, and they both walked together to a deserted room.

"I'm still confused by the relationship between the two," Martin spoke, "it's almost like they're married."

* * *

As Olivia led them into the empty room, Harold took a seat in a chair. "...Harold, what's wrong?" Olivia asked. "This solemness isn't like you. What did Hades say to you?"

Harold looked up. "He basically confirmed what the letter stated..." he stood up, frustrated. "Our son's going to die, and we can't stop it!"

"Harold, calm down," Olivia told him, "we know what the letter said, and..." her breath shook at the thought of Isaac dead. "It doesn't sound like anything we can stop, especially with **him**, and-"

"It is not about **HIM!" **Harold yelled, causing Olivia to gasp at Harold's rage. "It's about..." he stated, going quiet. "...about how we've been treating Isaac all these years..." He sat down, a defeated look on his face.

Olivia was completely confused by that statement. She was not like Harold when it came to their family, but usually he believed that everything would turn out all right in the end. To hear him say these words...it wasn't like her husband at all. "Harold," she asked, placing a hand on his shoulder, "we've done the best we can when raising Isaac. The best we could have done while I was the Center's head, and-"

"It's not how we raised him, Olivia," Harold spoke, looking down at his hand. "It's all the secrets we've kept from him over the years." As if in response, a small blue spark lit up his hand.

Olivia attempted to speak, but found she couldn't. She couldn't because it was true: they had kept secrets from Isaac, and it had hurt him emotionally.

"We thought," Harold spoke, sitting down, Olivia following suit, "that we could raise a child while you worked at the Center. We thought...that keeping the Center hidden from him, that our son would be safe, and that he wouldn't be hurt. But in the end, it was those secrets, those...lies," he struggled to say the word, "that hurt our son the most. You remember what happened when we finally decided to tell him, right?"

"...Yes, I do." Olivia said sadly. "We actually chose that date to tell him."

It was two years ago, on Isaac's fifteenth birthday (won't go into specific details), when they finally decided to tell Isaac the truth. In a way, Olivia sometimes thought, they had made the mistake of telling him mid-day, or even on that day at all. She always cringed at the thought of the devastated, hurt look that was on their son's face, and the anger that swiftly followed. He refused to speak to either of them for the remainder of the day, which ended with Olivia quietly slipping away in the middle of the night, like she always did during her visits.

"It's my fault," Olivia spoke. "Colin was right; I wasn't there as much as I should have been."

Harold looked over at his wife's distraught face. "No, Olivia; it's both our faults."

He stood up, and put his fist to a wall, and simply stared at the wall. "I was always there when he was a child, but I never really did anything that could truly qualify me as a father," he spoke, "because I always thought that it was because you were always away from home that Isaac was either sad, or depressed. I thought he'd be able to grow out of it, and that your visits were enough to keep him happy."

"But..." Harold let his hand fall to his side. "That wasn't it. I let our son suffer through his problems instead of helping him through it. The secrets we have kept from him have also hurt Isaac's heart."

"When I saw Hades with his son..." he remained silent for a moment. "I saw just how bad of a father I was."

"Harold," Olivia told him, "we knew the risks we were taking when we made the decision to keep quiet about the Center, and everything else. We've done as much as we can given our choices over the past 10 years. In the end, we both did it for our son's safety."

Harold sighed. "...Safe from everything else, but was he safe from **us?"**

The statement gave Olivia pause; she put her right hand to her chin in thought, and in the end, came back defeated; as much as they both protected him, their son wasn't safe from the pain the truth brought to him. "I...need some time alone to think."

He stood up, and nodding in understanding, Olivia pressed a button on her U-watch, and sent Harold back home. She then went to her own appointment, missing the event that was about to transpire...

* * *

Back over near where Isaac was resting, a tension was steadily rising between brother and sister. "...You know, Martin," Diana began, "maybe Marvin was right; we didn't need Isaac's help at all."

Martin rolled his eyes; Diana had a nasty habit (as Martin thought of it), of agreeing with Marvin on just about everything, or finding everything he says cool, even when **Martin **himself was talking about it first, and she found it disgusting. He remembered it happening once when they were on a mission to a school for the blind; Marvin's first official mission. Even when it came down to mundane things, if it had to do with Marvin, she'd find it cool, like canoeing in the rapids, calling it a "real adrenaline rush". Other times, to other people, she'd call them crazy, but **never** Marvin.

The more Martin thought about it, the more Marvin's presence irked him; Diana even argued with **Isaac **from time to time. "Could you say that again, Diana?" Martin said angrily. "I don't think Isaac can hear you."

"What's your problem," Diana spoke, making sure not to yell, "I was just thinking it over, and-"

"Agreeing with what Marvin said, I **know," **Martin said, stressing the last word. "Didn't you say you were **thankful **for Isaac's help earlier?"

"Well," Diana stammered, caught off-guard, "yes, I was, and I am...but he didn't really make that much of a difference in the end, Martin; he was incapacitated."

"That doesn't change a thing," Martin yelled, "and if you decide to-"

"Marvin actually helped more," Diana spoke, "when he kept the monsters at bay while we read the spell."

Martin's patience snapped; he said exactly what he expected, and was afraid she would say. He banged his fist against the glass so hard, it cracked, unknowingly waking Isaac. Something inside him had made Martin uncharacteristically angry, and the look in his eyes was one Diana could easily match to the one she saw when Martin smashed the Harpy's head open.

"SO THAT IMMEDIATELY MAKES HIM BETTER THAN ISAAC? IS THAT IT?"

Diana was taken aback, and terrified; this wasn't like the Martin she knew. She thought that Martin and Marvin were making progress becoming friends, but now that seemed to vanish from Martin, all in defence of Isaac.

"Wh-what are you saying?" Diana fired back. "I never said that at all!"

"The look on your face was saying a different story," Martin spoke angrily, "back when you found out that Marvin came to Torrington, and – wait, scratch that, the **second time** you found out, after your memory loss."

Diana was rendered speechless; how did Martin find out about that? "Isaac told me about everything that happened on that day," Martin spoke, answering Diana's thoughts, "before he went to speak with you about it."

"Wait, he told **you?"** Diana questioned. "But why would he do that?"

"Because he felt I deserved to know what had happened," Martin fired back. "He nearly lost his life saving you, Diana; you shouldn't take that lightly in comparison to Marvin."

Diana grabbed Martin's shirt in anger. "THERE IS NO COMPARISON BETWEEN THEM!" Martin's eyes widened in disbelief; just which one didn't compare to the other? Martin feared the answer. "You're over-rating Isaac..." she muttered, and that statement stabbed into both Martin, and Isaac. "Marvin has had a lot more experience as a Center agent, so what gave you the right to compare them, to believe that Isaac's naturally better than Marvin?"

"Diana, how could you say that?" Martin protested. "What's next, are you going to tell me that those times during our recent mission-"

"I know Marvin's not perfect!" Diana yelled. "He's just frustrated because we had one more person than usual on this mission."

"Usual? You act as if it was Marvin who was with us on all the other mission, and not Isaac!"

"I'm talking about recently, Martin! Besides-"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!"

They both jumped out of their socks when they looked back to the door to see Isaac, panting, and a small trickle of blood dripping down the mouth.

"I-Isaac..." Diana stuttered, suddenly seeing one of the subjects of their arguement conscious. "Just ignore what we were arguing about; it didn't mean anything."

Isaac glared at her. "I wish I could believe that, Diana."

Martin took a step back a little; it was **that **look. It wasn't the look he gave people he was rather annoyed with, which gave off the vibe of death, but this was one of insight. Isaac could carve away everything else on the surface, and pierce the very soul of the person he was looking at.

He looked away from Diana. "So, you honestly believe that Marvin's the better agent?"

Martin looked at Java. The caveman always felt a need to stay out of arguments, usually remaining a neutral party in such situations. He had a look of concern on his face, and hurt that his teammates were arguing so fiercely. Usually, it was something silly or pointless, but lately, he had seen more arguments that resulted in emotional pain from either one or both sides. He saw it in Transylvania, and he was seeing a repeat now.

Diana's breathing began to pick up, and adopted a look of panic, trying to answer Isaac's question. She now felt that they let their argument get out of hand, since normally, she would have never said such things. She didn't have time to answer. "It should be obvious, Isaac," Martin said, now seething with anger, "it should be obvious that she thinks Marvin is-"

"JUST SHUT UP!" Diana screamed painfully, and ran off, tears streaming from her eyes, with Java following her, to see if he could make her feel better. _This...this isn't like Martin at all, _she thought weakly, _why is he acting so violently?_

Isaac watched the scene in shock, which immediately changed to anger directed at Martin. "What the hell was that about, Martin? You went too far!"

"This doesn't concern-" Martin interrupted angrily, and pointed his hand at Isaac. Isaac grabbed Martin's hand mid-motion. Upon contact, across both their minds, it flashed by:

_Against the light of the full-moon, among the remains of a burnt village, stood a blood-soaked demon, surrounded by a ring of corpses. The presence it radiated frightened Isaac; not even Typhon was filled with such...primordial evil._

"_What...the hell...is that?" Isaac spoke, taking a step back, realizing that Martin was seeing the same thing. The beast looked towards Isaac with glowing, green eyes, and screamed inhumanly, the very sound threatening to tear their souls apart. It leaped forward, a burning hand smashing against Isaac's chest..._

Both boys screamed in pain, and they fell away from each other. Isaac fell to the floor, while Martin fell against the wall, gripping his body in pain. "Wh-what was-" Isaac tried to speak, but he coughed blood, mid-sentence, and registered the burning pain on his chest. He quickly stood up, and his eyes widened in fear when he saw it: a hand-shaped mark of blood against his chest, precisely where the demon had hit him; it was a burn mark. Isaac could only think one thing: _A...psychic flash, _he pondered, _but it was strong enough to cause physical pain? What the hell is going on?_

"I...I'm sorry!" Martin yelled, and ran off to an empty room nearby, leaving Isaac staring in shock. When he managed to collect himself, he followed Martin, regardless of his injury. "Hey, wait!"

As he entered the room, he found a side of Martin he rarely ever saw; he was scared out of his wits, and horrified at what just occurred. But that wasn't the only thing he saw either; since Martin's back was facing towards him, a strange rune was glowing on Martin's back, sickly green, and it faded away as if it was never there. Isaac remembered that two weeks before he and Diana went to Transylvania, Martin went on a training mission. When they tried to call Martin about how he was doing, there was no answer. He and Diana thought that they weren't called on any missions for two weeks because either M.O.M was being generous, or because the paranormal world was silent. Seeing this sight caused Isaac to wonder: What really happened on that mission?

He walked forward, and knelt down beside Martin. "P-please..." he whispered. "Don't...don't tell M.O.M what happened."

Isaac nodded. If he had a good idea of what was going on, his mother had something to do with it...somehow. "Martin...what is going on? What happened four weeks ago?"

Martin shook his head fiercely. "I...I don't remember! I just keep on getting these horrifying images of...of..."

"A demon and blood?" Isaac spoke, and Martin nodded. "It's all these dreams..." He whispered, a tear streaming down his face. "They're getting worse. I...I don't know why. I've tried keeping it hidden from Diana and Marvin, and...do you think Diana...?"

"Needs to know?" Isaac finished. He pondered, and came to an answer. "No, not right now. It will only cause her to worry, and inevitably bring the subject to M.O.M."

He placed one of Martin's arms around his shoulder, and stood up, the burn stinging harshly. "Now, let's get going."

Martin looked at Isaac, and wiped the tears away. "Maybe me, but not you. You still need to be in the infirmary."

"And that's where I'm going," Isaac said, walking out of the room, "the automated medical attention should have me healed before anyone knows what happened. Although, I will need a new shirt."

Isaac looked back at Martin before he re-entered his infirmary room. "Take care, Martin." He walked inside, and Martin sat down, pondering his dreams once more...

* * *

Over where M.O.M was finished taking the medical tests Gray had performed after he finished in Magic Decontamination, she was waiting impatiently for the results. She cocked an eyebrow, and the anticipation built up inside her when she saw Gray smiling almost ear-to-ear as the final test was run.

"What is it, Nathan?" Olivia asked curiously, unintentionally using Gray's first name.

Nathan lifted his eyebrows. "Usually you call me Dr. Gray, regardless of our past history," he said with a chuckle. "Before I give you the printed results, was there one symptom you left out?"

Frustrated with Nathan's question, she answered. "Well, I do suppose that early in the morning after I woke up, I had to throw up. But what does something like that have to do with my illness? I just probably just ate something that sit well with me yesterday."

Nathan's smile widened. "Olivia, if you had simply told me all of your symptoms, I could have figured out what it was without doing any tests."

"Oh, and why is that?" Olivia said grumpily, holding her hand out for the clip-board.

Nathan handed it to her. "You came to the infirmary about those same symptoms in September, over 18 years, but I only showed Harold the results back then."

Olivia gasped in astonishment when she read the conclusion of the test. She smiled, and a single tear of joy streamed down her cheek. "Are...are you sure this is accurate?" She asked happily, a smile beaming on her face.

It was a rare sight indeed for Nathan to see Olivia like this, so he could only smile in return; there was always something so beautiful about the way Olivia smiled like this. "Olivia, this is Center medical technology; of course it's accurate. So, are you going to tell Isaac and Harold?"

"I'll tell Harold soon," Olivia said happily, "but I think I'll keep it a surprise for Isaac, when we are together as a family."

Nathan could only chuckle. "Well, I'll leave you be for now, Olivia. Congratulations." Saying that, he walked out of the room.

_It's strange, _Olivia thought, _but now...I feel like everything will be better soon for our family. _Thinking this, she blushed a little, and laid a tender hand on her stomach.


	10. Dream or Prophecy?

The next morning, Martin woke up screaming. After what happened last night when both he and Isaac saw that same demon, the nightmares reached an entirely new level of horrifying. He quickly looked at his hands. There was a brief image of blood-soaked fingers, but they quickly faded away. He took in a shaking breath, and exhaled. He got up, and went to the shower.

There was one thing that puzzled him, though. Although the nightmare was terrifying enough, there was one image that made him not try to forget it. Out of place, untouched by the demon's rampage, there was a bird, and it seemed the demon was wary of it. What was interesting about the bird was it's colouring, and what surrounded it. One side of the bird was white, while the other was black, and the eyes on each side were blue and red respectively. In fact, the dream ended when the demon attacked the bird, and was met with a wave of blue energy.

_What was that bird, _Martin thought, _and what does it have to do with my dreams? ...Does it have to do with Isaac? _This thought passed through his mind because he knew about Isaac's family crest. It was created by an old ancestor, and apparently, it was a white-black phoenix rising from blue flames. Diana even gave Isaac a necklace that looked like that phoenix. And the phoenix looked like the one in his dream.

_Well, whatever it is, I doubt Isaac even knows about it, _Martin concluded, but it left him wondering what other secrets his father had kept from Isaac. He shook his head at one idea that popped up. _No, that's ridiculous...still, it's been seven years, and we would have never suspected his Dad was a Center agent, or that he knew of the Center. _After he was done his shower, he got changed, and went to meet Isaac, so they could discuss the issue that mattered at the moment: apologizing to Diana.

He sat on a bench, and he didn't have to wait long. In fact, he popped out from behind the bill-board on the wall nearby. Center portals always appeared behind something, and for good reason. But sometimes, they aren't hidden well enough, and people get curious. Other times, people stumble upon them accidentally when following someone they know. He chuckled to himself; that was exactly how Diana was first made aware of the Center. "Have I kept you waiting long?" Isaac inquired.

Martin looked up. "No, not long at all." He looked at Isaac as he took a seat beside him.

"You look a little pale, Martin," Isaac stated, "was it another nightmare?"

Martin was quiet. "Yeah, it was another nightmare. I keep on seeing villages burning down, people being torn apart, blood everywhere. Still," Martin muttered, putting a hand to his chin, "this one took a rather odd turn at the end."

"An odd turn," Isaac spoke, interested, "how so?"

"There was this bird in the dream," Martin stated, "a Phoenix, I think. The demon seemed wary of it, and they attacked each other as the dream ended."

"...A black and white Phoenix?" Isaac said, a hint of confusion in his eyes.

"Yeah," Martin stated, "just like that necklace of yours."

Isaac lifted the necklace up in the palm of his hand. "I had a dream last night, and it had such a phoenix in it."

"What happened?"

"Well, it seemed locked in a cage, and the cage was over-flowing with a blue light, like energy. It was sealed by a rune that I vaguely recognize from a Center entry I read a long time ago."

"Is that all?" Martin asked.

"...If that were all, I wouldn't be concerned by what happened next." Isaac stated. "There seemed to be fighting going on outside, between two shadowy figures and one of them was hurt by the other. The Phoenix saw this, and the seal suddenly shattered, and the other was obliterated by the energy that cascaded out."

"Wow, that's an odd dream." Martin said.

"But the same bird appeared in both of ours..." Isaac went silent, not understanding what it all meant.

Martin sighed, and put a hand to his forehead. "This is all too complicated for morning thinking," he moaned."

"Maybe for you," Isaac stated, "but my mornings usually start with thinking. At any rate, we have a more personal matter to attend to than the philosophical, paranormal...or the prophetic."

"What makes you think it was prophetic?" Martin enquired.

"Because in the dream, **I **was the phoenix." Isaac stated.

He wasn't told by Martin yet, but Martin was afraid that it may mean they would soon come to blows someday, if the dreams were prophetic. Because in Martin's dream, he left out one detail...

"Isaac...there's something you need to know."

"What is it, Martin?"

A cold shiver ran up Isaac's spine at Martin's next words. "...In my dream...**I **was the demon."


	11. Growing Tension

Growing Tension

Diana woke up that morning quite tired. She figured that it was from what they went through yesterday with Typhon, since she still felt a little hot from going into that volcano. As she got out of bed, she also thought about how Martin reacted yesterday. _He wasn't himself,_ Diana thought, _in fact, he's been a little odd ever since he got back from his training mission. He's been irritated by Marvin on missions earlier, I admit...but last night, that was pure rage. The only other time he was like that was when...I joined Octavia, but even that was mild compared to what happened._

She shook the image from her mind, and went to take a shower, hoping to clean off any remaining soot from yesterday. She let the water wash over, as she thought about what Marvin's response to her telling him about what happened was:

_As she sat sobbing in a chair, she wiped away the tears, and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. "Well," Diana stated, "I guess I should talk to Martin tomorrow, and ask him why he went off like that."_

"_You shouldn't ask him anything," Marvin spoke up. Now that Diana thought about it, it seemed a bit...insistent. "Why are you so easy to forgive him?"_

"_Because he's my brother," Diana told him, "and that kind of behaviour isn't like him."_

"_And what if he freaks out again," Marvin questioned, "what will it be then?"_

_Diana was silent. "Well...if he does, it means I know something's bothering him, and-"_

"_No 'and' Diana," Marvin stated fiercely, "and I suggest you stay away from him for a while."_

"_But why-" Diana asked, but Marvin silenced her. "Just listen to me, Diana. He freaked out because he didn't believe that I was better than that white-haired guy, Isaac. Now if something's wrong with him, I think it's best we keep away from him, understand?"_

Diana had found it hard to say no to Marvin, even though she didn't like the thought of staying away from Martin. If she had known what was wrong with Martin, she'd have given him space in order for him to cope. But what happened last night almost came out of the blue...though she may have provoked it, with agreeing about Isaac not being needed when he was in the next room.

She sighed; it was so confusing. Marvin was at Torrington, something that she admitted she was happy about...but at the same time, Isaac was leaving in two weeks because the higher-ups felt M.O.M's placement of Isaac was biased. In a way, she reasoned, it slightly was: even they must have known Isaac was M.O.M's son. Still, she felt something that Isaac brought with him would also vanish when he left. They'd been agents with each other for at least four months; a longer period of time than any other association she had with Marvin.

She sighed in frustration of all the thinking, and stepped out of the shower, and got changed. She **had** decided to to stay away from Martin for the day, but it wasn't for Marvin's reasons; Diana had figured that Martin was just angry at the fact that Marvin was called in to replace Isaac, and that a day alone was what he needed to calm down.

She stopped at the door, and thought about Isaac and Martin. Their beginning was a little rough, mostly due to Martin's personality from back then still being present. Still, whenever they got their act together, to focus on one singular goal during regular missions (including saving her, she admitted), they were quite literally unstoppable. Also, over the past four months, they've become quite close friends, despite occasional bickering. _Isaac was a friend who suddenly came back into our lives, _Diana thought, _and Martin has gotten so used to having Isaac around. It must hurt him to know Isaac will be leaving..._

She sighed, and walked out the door. She decided she wanted to be alone today, so she went to the library. She tried to bury her thoughts in a book there, but she wasn't able to, since she was interrupted.

"...Diana?" A voice spoke.

She recognized the voice; she looked up from her book to see Martin. He seemed nervous. "What do you want?" Diana asked, and then looked back at her book, wondering why Martin wanted to see her.

"Look, Di..." He looked away. "...It's about what happened yesterday."

"What about it," Diana enquired, her anger bubbling up at the thought of what happened, what Martin accused her of.

"About the things I said..." Martin said, "...Diana, about all those things I said...I-"

Diana snapped her book shut, silencing Martin. "There's no need," Diana spoke sarcastically, "I already know what you said, about how I favour Marvin over Isaac. Is that what this is about?" She accused. "Did Isaac put you up to this?"

"Diana, I didn't mean to say the things I did!" Martin yelled a _little too loud, _and all activity in the library stopped, and stared at the two. They noticed, and they both swore they could hear whispered discussions about what could have possibly happened between them.

In a quieter voice, he resumed. "But yes, Isaac is in on this," Martin stated, "but it has nothing to do with Marvin...and Isaac says that he's sorry about the question he asked."

Diana pondered. His question was strictly trivial, and she knew he rarely apologized, especially about trivial things, and only does so whenever he's proven wrong. He says he took that kind of behaviour from a close friend, who never apologizes when he means the things he says. It kind of reminded her of Colin Price...

"Diana?" Martin asked.

"Hm?" She muttered, and then shook her head. She had drifted off, something that wasn't like her. Then again, that scar Isaac bore, the same as the wound the masked man had, provoked curiosity.

"Sorry," Diana stated, "it's just that Isaac doesn't have to apologize. Why is Isaac in on this in the first place?"

"Well," Martin started, "he didn't like the fact that the both of us were so angry with each other, so we decided that I should apologize to you, that's all."

"...You're upset about him leaving, aren't you?" Diana asked.

Martin was stunned by the question. When he composed himself, he answered. "Diana, the four of us have been chasing and catching monsters and other kinds of paranormal beings together for four months. Isaac's really become a part of the group. There shouldn't be any need to replace him with someone else."

"I suppose you want Isaac's question answered, right?"

"You don't have to if you don't want to," Martin said.

Well, Diana felt like answering the question; Martin's words made up her decision on the matter. "Well, I want to, Martin." Diana said. She took a deep breath, and spoke. "Last night, I guess I was angry at all of your accusations, and I admit, I was being a little biased about Marvin and all. Still, we've had fewer missions with him than we've had with Isaac, so it's kind of hard to compare the two, and-"

"Di, just be straight foward," Martin spoke suddenly, "you're answer's about to become logic."

"I answer the way I want to, okay," Diana shot back. It was another little sibling quarrel over something simple. "Marvin is a good agent," she resumed, "and he's been in the Center longer. However," she said, allowing herself a smile, "we've been through a lot with Isaac, and we've saved each other so many times in the past four months. To be honest, Martin," she said, "if I were given a choice to whom I'd go on a mission with between those two, it'd be Isaac."

Martin smiled; he knew very well about how one or the other would react if the other was in danger. He couldn't deny that they both deeply worried about each others' safety. They trusted each other, for the most part, and Martin himself knew that he could trust Isaac with his life.

"Let's just forget what happened, all right," Diana spoke, "we were just irritated and angry."

"Yeah," Martin spoke, almost talking about himself, "some things are best forgotten."

"...Martin, what's wrong?" Diana asked, catching on. "You haven't been your normal self lately." _As in not as hyper-active and annoying, _she added to herself.

"It's nothing, Diana," Martin lied, "you don't need to concern yourself."

Diana saw right through it; why was he lying to her? "Look, Martin," she said tenderly, "if you ever feel like talking about it, you **can** talk to me. I'll listen to whatever you have to say."

"...Well," Martin said reluctantly, "I hate to say this, but Isaac also knows about this."

Diana averted her eyes; her brother seemed to trust Isaac more than he trusted her. But it wasn't exactly because there were trust issues between them. Martin was just acting like a normal older brother, not wanting his sister to get involved in things that could hurt her. He was surprisingly like that when she was first recruited into the Center.

Isaac, on the other hand, was quite close to Martin, almost like they had been best friends for years instead of months. Speaking of Isaac...

"By the way," Diana suddenly asked, "where's Isaac?"

Martin's eyes widened; he had forgotten about that detail. "Well, on our way here, we kinda bumped into Marvin."

"And you told him you wanted to see me, and he wouldn't let you, right?" Diana enquired, knowing where this was going.

"Yeah. In fact, we were expecting it; Java told us so." He took a breath, and continued. "So, in response, Isaac grabbed him by the arm, and dragged him away to an empty room."

"Hoo boy," Diana sighed, opening her book back up, "that doesn't feel like it'll end well."

"Tell me about it," Martin agreed, "Isaac was miffed when he heard from Java, and from Marvin's own mouth about me not being allowed to see you. Kinda makes me feel sorry for Marvin."

If Martin had heard what was said in the conversation, he wouldn't be saying that. And Isaac was more than miffed; he was _enraged_.

So allow me to turn back time, so we can see what Martin and Isaac were doing up till they met Marvin, and what transpired between Isaac and Marvin...

Both Martin and Isaac decided to wait a little longer before going to talk to Diana, since they both needed time to think over the mystery that was the Phoenix in their inter-joining dreams...and what they symbolized. _Martin being the demon in his dream, _Isaac thought, _but that's utterly ridiculous. He may act like a jerk sometimes, but there is no way possible he can be malevolent...intentionally._

Octavia's words tugged their way to the surface. _All because of a wounded pride, _Isaac thought, _Diana was willing to turn her back on the Center to get back at Martin. She definitely didn't agree with what Octavia did...but what's more significant was that she personally chose to join Octavia before knowing._ He didn't really believe up till that conversation that Diana would ever be so hostile towards anyone, even Martin. Maybe highly irritated and annoyed, but never to the point she'd actively choose to go against the Center. Isaac took this moment to remind himself: the Diana he knew was from seven years ago. It's impossible for someone to remain unchanged during that period of time. He recalled how much he changed over those years, in comparison to back then.

_I sure hope those dreams aren't prophetic, _Isaac thought, _because I don't think I could ever fight Martin like that. Still, that phoenix...is there **still **something they aren't telling me? _He bit his lip in anger at the thought; they had promised him that after they revealed the Center to him, that was the last secret. The thought that they could be keeping yet one more...

He shook his head; that wasn't the time to be thinking about his own personal issues. He needed to help Martin mend his bond with Diana, and he had a bad feeling that Marvin would find some way to get in between the two. He got up from his bed, and walked out his door, and searched for Martin.

After meeting each other in the hallway, they began looking for Diana, only to find Java before hand. "Hi Martin, hi Isaac," he said, almost nervously.

Martin picked up on it instantly; he knew Java better than anyone. "Java, why are you nervous?" He sighed. "I guess this is about what happened last night, right?"

The caveman nodded. "Well, Java," Martin stated, "I'm going to apologize to Diana, okay?" He placed a hand on Java's shoulder. "I was just more irritated than usual last night."

Java had a puzzled look on his face; it took a lot to get Martin irritated or genuinely angry, but he went off like a fire-cracker yesterday. "Well, Java would agree, but Marvin tell me to tell Martin and Isaac to stay away from Diana."

Isaac's hands tightened into fists. "So that guy is trying to butt his nose into this matter, is he? But how does he know...?" He went silent; he heard what Diana said about comparing him to Marvin. "Java, did Diana go straight to Marvin after what happened last night."

Java nodded. "I see," Isaac stated, and Martin could feel the anger in his voice. "And he wants us to stay away, does he?"

"Marvin say that it for Diana's own good," Java innocently replied.

Martin gritted his teeth; that couldn't be helped. Practically everyone liked Marvin from the get-go, even M.O.M, but she swiftly changed her tune after those two messed-up missions, when he messed up his first one, and intentionally sought out the Leprechaun charm for his own personal gain. "Do you know where they are now," Isaac suddenly said.

"Diana in library," Java said, "don't know where Marvin is."

Isaac put a palm and fist together. "All right then," Isaac said. "Java, be a good friend and let us see Diana. Martin wants to apologize to her, and it wouldn't be good if you didn't let him."

"Okay," Java said, and started cleaning again. He may have liked Marvin like almost everyone else, but he owed Martin much more. Martin and Isaac began walking towards the library.

"So, what are we going to do?" Martin asked.

"You are going to apologize to Diana, as you were going to." Isaac stated.

"But what about Marvin? I doubt he'll let me near her."

Isaac smiled creepily, and Martin stepped off to the side a bit nervously. It was always creepy when Isaac had that kind of expression on his face. Somehow, that face reminded him of Sousuke when they first met him, along with the masked boy...

"You shouldn't worry about Marvin," he said, his voice almost hissing, "Should we see him, I'll deal with him personally."

Something clicked with Martin the moment Isaac spoke that phrase: the masked boy said the very same thing before they encountered Sousuke. _Isaac has always been very protective of M.O.M, _he put together,_ and the masked boy spoke of the people that Sousuke hurt that were close to him. And the scars...Isaac, that was you, wasn't it?_ He decided to leave it for another time, and he suddenly found himself praying for Marvin: he seemed to have gotten on Isaac's bad side, and when Isaac was in a bad mood, not even monsters stood a chance.

And speaking of the devil, Marvin appeared right around the corner, and Isaac's expression changed so fast, you wouldn't have suspected he looked like he was about to murder someone a moment ago.

"Well, if it isn't Martin," Marvin said, "what do you want?"

"I'm going to speak to Diana," Martin stated.

"Oh really," Marvin spoke, sounding rude, "well, I won't allow it. Not after that freakish out-burst you apparently had last night."

"Martin didn't mean what he said," Isaac spoke, "and he wants to apologize."

"You know Martin," Marvin spoke, ignoring Isaac, "you've been acting quite weird lately, and frankly, like a freak. I saw what happened with that Harpy, so there must be something seriously wrong with you."

"You have a very big mouth." Isaac spoke, clamping a hand onto Marvin's arm. Martin immediately registered what appeared to be anger in Isaac's eyes, and it was directed at Marvin.

"Wha-... HEY!" Marvin shouted, as Isaac forcibly dragged him away from Martin.

When he managed to get him alone in an empty classroom, he tossed Marvin away, and closed the door. "What's your problem, freak?"

"My problem," Isaac stated, "what about you? You actually told Java to tell Martin to stay away from Diana?"

"Of course I did," Marvin stated, "and your reason for asking is...?"

"Why the hell do you want Martin and Diana's relationship to remain with such a wound? Why do you not want Martin apologizing to Diana?"

Marvin realized; he was dragged away so Martin could talk to Diana. "Why you...!" He went for the door, but Isaac blocked it. "If you really consider yourself their friend," Isaac stated, "maybe you should show some more concern for the two of them, instead of trying to force them apart."

"And what about you, dragging me all the way here," Marvin spat, "do you have some kind of vendetta against me or something?"

"Not against you, singularly," Isaac replied truthfully; he had far bigger vendettas against other people. "Just tell me, why did Diana tell you about what happened, and why did you tell her to stay away from Martin?"

Marvin grinned. "Oh, you want to know why Diana let me in on what happened? I'll tell you why: it's because she likes me, that's why, and because of that, she trusts me. She basically recommended me to M.O.M when she praised me for saving her and Martin from that oxygen-eating bacteria in the Amazon. Without me, those two would be goners."

He was completely oblivious to it, since he wasn't looking, but Isaac's eyes were darkening with anger. "As for what happened, she was a wreck, and I simply told her that staying away from Martin was the best idea. That guy may be many things, but I never considered him to be some spaz. Honestly though, I don't get why M.O.M puts up with him, especially when there's a better agent like me around."

While Marvin couldn't tell what Isaac was thinking, Isaac saw through Marvin as clear as if he was transparent. "You self-centred parasite," he spat venomously, and Marvin finally registered Isaac's mental state, and took a step back. "It was never about either Diana or Martin's feelings; you just want attention; you just want Diana to see you and no one else."

"Jealous, are we," Marvin said nervously, unable to effectively counter Isaac.

"No, just angry, particularly at the fact that you used Diana's pain in order to get closer to her, and to push her own brother away from her."

"Hey, they're just step-siblings. And aren't you being hypocritical or something? You tell me to back off, but you're involved in it right now."

It took all of Isaac's will to not smash his head through a window right there and then. Once he calmed down, he glared at Marvin. "I can't believe someone like you exists. And I'm not being hypocritical; you are doing nothing to help them; in fact, you're trying to force them apart, and I'm trying to make sure things turn out for the better. In a way," Isaac admitted, "I'm glad for this transfer now, so I don't have to be around the likes of you 24/7."

As he turned for the door, he stated. "By the way, if you **ever** try to push Diana and Martin apart again, there will be dire consequences."

"Pfft, what kind of consequences," Marvin spoke.

Isaac turned to look at Marvin. There was no glare, or even a slight twitch of the mouth. All he needed was for Marvin to see his face. A cold numbness seemed to pass through Marvin, as cold, dead eyes looked at him, from an expressionless face.

"...I'll break you." Was all that Isaac said, and he walked out. Marvin took a step back, his mind finally processing his fear of that face.

"What...kind of monster is that kid?" He spoke to no one but himself.


	12. Promise Me

Promise Me

Isaac walked away from the classroom, and he sighed. He knew that Marvin wouldn't keep quiet about what happened. Well, he would keep quiet about what **he **had said, but Isaac had a feeling that he would surely twist the truth around some way the next time he talked to Diana. After all, the last threat Isaac spoke was a serious one.

He scolded himself for letting his anger go away with him. _Although I know Marvin has no care towards Martin and Diana, as long as he gets what he wants, _Isaac thought to himself, _I should have never gotten into that argument in the first place; it'll only add fuel to the fire._

With this in mind, he returned to his room at Torrington, and worked at his school-work, expecting Diana to come along within a few hours. When he was finished, yet Diana hadn't come along yet, he decided to go to Pebbleton's office, and tell him of the transfer of schools. As he walked into the principal's office, and told him about wanting to transfer, he apparently wasn't surprised.

"I got a call from your father an hour ago," Pebbleton explained, "saying how you wanted to change schools. I must say, it caught me off-guard; I expected you to stay for the whole school year."

"Changing circumstances," Isaac stated, thinking of what Harold might have said to the Principal.

"Though I must say how co-incidental it is," Pebbleton said almost reminiscently, "for you to be transferring to the very school an Exchange student, Tatsuki Miyabe, attends in Japan."

Something clicked in Isaac at that moment. When he had lived in Osaka, he had attended school in an entirely different division from Tatsuki's. Back then, he still had feelings of hostility toward Tatsuki, for the crimes her brother committed; for the people he had hurt. Looking back on it, he regretted how short-sighted he was, and how he let his anger towards Sousuke affect his opinion of Tatsuki. In a way, he felt that as he was back then, he was quite similar to Algernon...

"Is...Something wrong, Isaac Alexander?" Principal Pebbleton asked.

Isaac shook his head, snapping himself out of past memories. "No, it's nothing. I'm just feeling nostalgic."

That was half the truth; Osaka had actually been one of the places where Isaac had stayed the longest when he and his father moved around when he began making a name for himself as an Archaeologist. They spent two years there, having moved there shortly after Isaac's fifteenth birthday. He really missed the rich culture it had, even if he could barely understand some of the more complex Japanese, even though he had spent those two years learning the language, among other things.

"Well," Isaac said, "I better go get my things sorted out for when I leave within the next two weeks...though I might leave even earlier."

"Oh, for what reasons," Pebbleton asked curiously.

"As I said earlier, Principal Pebbleton," Isaac said, "Changing circumstances." Leaving the Principal wrapped in confusion, he walked out the door.

The other half was out of confusion and suspicion. The Sorcerer's comment about Isaac being something different, 'what he was', had been the 4th time that Isaac had heard that ever since August.

He stopped walking back to his room, and leaned on a wall, folding his arms. He recalled the first two times, all back in the Miyabe incident. The first time was from Sousuke, and the second was from Algernon himself, and both men knew what they were talking about, as Isaac now realized:

"_You have no idea, boy" Sousuke spoke mockingly, "you have no idea how much alike the two of us really are! Whoever your parents are may have done something, but the reality of __**what you really are**__ is inescapable!"_

"_What do you really know of that boy," Algernon had spoken to Martin, Diana and Tatsuki. "He keeps his identity hidden under a mask, even under a fake name, yet the boy himself has yet to find out __**what he really is.**__ It's ironic, Tatsuki, since he's one of the few people like you."_

Isaac gritted his teeth, and his hands tightened their grip on his arms. He hissed through gritted teeth. "What is it you are still hiding?"

But before he could come to an answer, a voice called out to him: "Who is hiding what?"

A chibi Isaac leaped four feet into the air, and three feet to the left, and he found Diana looking at him, almost glaring. He took a breath to steady his nerves. "Diana, I nearly had a heart-attack!"

"Sorry, Isaac," Diana said, and went straight to the point. "Isaac, why were you so hostile towards Marvin earlier?" She spoke angrily. "And did you really threaten to break his back?"

Isaac sighed; Marvin had told her, and he had left everything that he said out. He also decided to put his own spin on Isaac's threat, thinking it was physical. Isaac had another idea in mind when he said it. Having been near-death twice, the second courtesy of, regretfully, Diana, and all of the life-threatening missions he had been on, physical pain or breaking bones had become something Isaac considered part of his work at the Center. What he had in mind was to expose what Marvin had said to him to Diana and Martin.

Although, thinking about it now, he realized that might not work. After all, would Diana really believe him, considering her feelings for Marvin, Isaac admitted, and could he be sure Martin would too? Even if Marvin had tried to force those two apart, Martin may have still considered Marvin to be a friend. Isaac thought to himself: had I really been too forceful?

He spoke, as he tried to explain himself. "Look, Diana..." He looked at her eyes, which burned with expectancy, as Diana waited for his answer. "Diana, did you honestly expect me to just stand around while you let Marvin tell you to **stay away from your own brother?**" He heavily emphasized those words, and Diana's eyes widen, as she took a step back.

"Isaac, don't use that tone with me!" Diana spoke forcefully, taking a step forward. "Marvin...he was just concerned, that's all. You saw what Martin was like; he wasn't his normal self! He had good right to want me to stay away from Martin...he was concerned for me, and..."

She seemed to catch herself before she could go any further. "...Look, Isaac," she started again, looking away from Isaac, "I've already talked to Martin, and we've made up. I just want to know why you acted the way Marvin said you did," her voice lowered, and she spoke softly. "It doesn't seem like you to act so violently towards someone like that."

After hearing this, Isaac made up his mind: he felt he had to tell Diana the truth. "Diana," he said, his voice shaking from even remembering his words, "It's about what **he **said that set me off, and what he was doing, as I mentioned earlier."

As Isaac spoke his next question, Diana's found it to be like an echo of what she heard once before. "What do you really know of Marvin?"

The question caught Diana off-guard, and on top of that, the look on Isaac's face as he said it: it coldly reminded her of Algernon, and what he said about the masked boy...the one who nearly gave his life to save Diana from Sousuke's attack on her. "Well, he's smart, enthusiastic, detail-oriented, great at sports, a good Center agent, and-"

"Not his achievements or merits, Diana," Isaac interrupted. "Besides you told me that before..."

Diana knew what the before meant: when she was infected and turning into a vampire two weeks ago. Getting back to the conversation, she said frustrated: "Isaac, does it really matter? I trust Marvin, and even Martin trusts him. I...I even like him, though you probably know that too!" Isaac nodded, meaning "yes, you did say that once", and she continued. "He also saved us in the Amazon rain forest. Why are you so angry because of that?"

"Much of what you said," Isaac said, his anger simmering again, "is precisely what he said to me about why you told him, and furthermore..." He went silent, wondering if he really should say it. "...Never mind." Isaac finally said.

"Why?" Diana spoke angrily. "Isaac, you never get that mad at someone without reason, and I want to know-"

Isaac snapped at her. "HE DOESN'T CARE, DIANA!"

Diana was taken aback. Panting, Isaac continued. "Diana, he doesn't care about anything that happens between you and Martin, as long as it doesn't affect him. He only sees you two as step-siblings, and is part of the reason why he doesn't care whether or not you two love each other or hate each other!"

Diana was about to respond angrily when Isaac began chuckling to himself, his hand covering his face. _Isaac, have you gone mad? _Diana thought, backing away in fear. It was another echo that Diana heard to someone else she knew, this time, Sousuke. A part of herself, she was ashamed to admit, was scared of Isaac, since in this brief argument, he showed similarity to both Sousuke and Algernon, people she had considered to be monsters.

"But look at whom I'm saying it to," Isaac said, the chuckling still present, albeit faded, "you don't believe anything as outlandish as that unless it hits you in the face."

At that moment, the one hit in the face was Isaac, as Diana slapped him hard, causing him to spin around twice before coming to a stop. A little dazed, Isaac looked at Diana, who looked extremely angry with him. He wasn't surprised; thinking back on it, he was shocked by his own demeanour that his anger caused.

"Stop it, Isaac," she said hushed, and then yelled. "Have you always been this mentally imbalanced?"

Isaac was about to respond, but he froze when he saw Jenni _right behind_ Diana. Diana noticed it, and looked behind herself, and jumped back two feet, startled.

"Isaac, Diana, what's..." Jenni was at quite a loss for words. She had come along just as Diana and Isaac's last exchange occurred, and it shocked her, since such an argument, and what they said, were those she would have never attributed to Isaac and Diana's relationship. Heck, the whole school knew about their relationship as well as they did Martin and Diana's.

Diana tried to explain, but was at a loss for words. She opened her mouth, yet nothing came out, and she looked away, ashamed at her behaviour. Isaac was too; he would have never said such things to Diana normally, and he knew it was because he let his anger get the better of him. He took his hand off his face, and spoke. "I know how this looks, Jenni..." He admitted. "And I hate to say it, but you're right." He looked at Diana sadly, who looked back at Isaac, astonished. "Diana...I'm sorry for what I said...just forget what I said..."

He turned around and began walking away, in the direction of his room. When Isaac had rounded the corner towards the Dorms, Jenni finally asked. "Diana, what the heck happened between you two?" Jenni questioned. "I've heard of people quarrelling before, but this one takes the cake."

Diana was only half-listening to Jenni, still looking in the direction Isaac went off in. She wrapped her arms around herself, as a small tear formed in her right eye. "We both said things...that we should have never said to each other."

"Don't tell me you two are breaking it off," Jenni spoke in worry. "You two used to really like each other...well, before now, I guess."

"Well..." Diana admitted, "He and Marvin had an argument earlier, and he said that Marvin said...well, he claimed that Marvin basically implied he didn't care about what happened between me and Martin, and must have out-right stated it was because we're only step-siblings."

Jenni's eyes widened in disbelief when Diana finished explaining what happened. It was quite conflicting in Jenni's mind what she just heard; she, as did many of the girls in Torrington, saw Marvin as the perfect guy, never doing anything bad intentionally, or acting as such towards people, yet she also knew that Isaac was never the kind of person to lie just to make someone else look bad. It hurt her brain quite a bit; two contradictions rolled into one.

"But...Marvin wouldn't...would he, Jenni?" Diana asked Jenni pleadingly.

"Whoa, slow down, Di," Jenni said, a little panicked herself. "I don't know either. There are celebrities that look all prim and pretty and perfect on paper," she admitted, "and...from what Isaac said, it could be the same with Marvin, as unbelievable as it sounds. But Di," Jenni told her, "didn't he just say to forget it? He looked just as hurt as you about what he said."

"Jennifer," Diana spoke, "I think you're right."

Jenni lifted her eye-brows in surprise; it was rare for anyone to call her by her full first name, instead of the shortened version, Jenni. Diana must have really been going through a lot. "I spoke with Martin earlier, and he told me you two had a spat as well. Did something happen last night that I should be concerned about?"

"...No, it isn't," Diana said to Jenni, hating keeping her friend locked out of the loop when she was so concerned. "Martin...was just angry that Isaac's going to be leaving Torrington."

"What?" Jenni yelled. "When did this happen, and why?"

"Well," Diana half-lied, "I guess his Dad got a job over in Japan, and Isaac decided to go along with him. He moves around like that a lot apparently."

"I see. I always found it odd how Isaac and Martin got along so well, considering how their personalities conflict. Though it makes sense how Martin would grow so attached to Isaac as a friend. I hate to say, but aside from Billy and the Janitor," Jenni spoke, "he doesn't have many friends."

Diana wiped away a tear. "But they are the best ones he could have." Diana pushed herself off the wall, and began walking towards Isaac's dorm room. "Where are you going?" Jenni asked.

"I'm going to talk to Isaac," Diana spoke. "Since he is leaving, I don't want it to be with bad blood between us."

As soon as Isaac got to his room, he fell down onto his bed, and into thought. _Idiot! Why did you do that? _He thought to himself. _Bad enough you insulted Diana, but you didn't even care about her feelings. ...Maybe it is better if I leave after all. That kind of behaviour is almost like how I acted back then, during the Miyabe incident..._

After a few minutes in silence, he heard a knocking on the door. He got off the bed, opened the door, and was surprised to find Diana standing there, hugging one of her arms. "May I come in," she asked meekly.

"...Sure, why not," he said, and let her in. As she sat down on a chair, he told her. "Diana, as I said before...I'm sorry for everything I said."

"Look, Isaac, you don't have to constantly apologize," Diana insisted, "in a way, it's both our faults."

"...Diana, the fault is primarily mine," Isaac stated, "I was the one who confronted Marvin, remember, and he said that-"

"Isaac," Diana stopped him, "I know what you said. It's possible that he was just frustrated and angry, you mis-interpreted...or he really meant it." She admitted to herself. "I just don't know Isaac, and I don't want any of this ruining the group."

Isaac sighed. "All right then."

"Isaac," Diana said softly, and cupped one of Isaac's hands in her, "Just...promise me that you won't get into any more arguments with Marvin. I don't want things getting any worse than they are. Can't I just have everyone get along for the time-being, at least until you leave?"

Isaac looked down at Diana's hands, and then looked up at her face. Her eyes were hopeful; they were hoping that this didn't happen again. He didn't want it to happen again, since he was so ashamed at how angry he had felt earlier. He allowed himself a small smile. "...All right, I promise," Isaac said, putting his own hand over her own.

"Good," Diana said, and she leaned over, and gave Isaac a kiss on the cheek, which caused him to blush a little. "Isaac, if you don't mind if I go see if Marvin...?"

"It's best not to play favourites, Diana," Isaac admitted, "you should tell him too."

He saw Diana smile, but it seemed her face was still...sad. She walked out of the door, and Isaac thought to himself how close things came to falling apart.

_That is two bullets dodged in one day, _Isaac thought to himself, counting the problem between Martin and Diana, and began to worry. _Things won't always go so easily, and I doubt I'll be able to dodge the third bullet._

Isaac wouldn't need to dodge the third bullet: due to the secrets his parents kept from him, _**he was the third bullet.**_


	13. Revealed and Hidden

Revealed and Hidden

With there being nothing else for him to do that day – no clubs to attend, or work to be finished – Isaac decided to do a bit of research on that bird he was seeing. Considering its appearance, he concluded that it was a Phoenix, but its colouring and power was something far different from any Phoenix he has ever read up. He doubted that the Center had actual physical data on a Phoenix, since only one exists, and no accounts by any agents he was aware of reported their encountering the fabled bird.

Isaac's computer had a special access to the Center databanks, since not only was he an agent, but he also used to be an experimental technologies tester for the Center. Typing in his password, he accessed the data-banks, and typed in these key words on his search: **black white phoenix energy.**

To Isaac's surprise, **three **files were found, whereas he only expected at least one. He clicked on all three of them, but another surprise hit Isaac – the files were on the "Black List". He couldn't even find out the titles of them. _Files kept around from the Black Ops database, _Isaac thought to himself, _and under complete restriction to all but the Center's head. Just what is-_

M.O.M's face suddenly appeared on the screen, and Isaac fell out of his seat in shock at her sudden appearance. "Did you honestly think that I wouldn't have an alarm in place in case someone browsed around these files?" She told him in almost a scolding manner, but her voice suddenly changed to concern. "And just why were you searching for these specific three in the first place?"

Isaac wanted to keep things secret; he wanted to keep his promise to Martin, but he just couldn't, now that not only he was caught red-handed, but some part of him didn't want to keep secrets from family. Isaac relented, and explained to M.O.M the dream he had the previous night, and Martin's as well. The look in her eyes was one he'd never seen before; fear and concern.

"...I guess that... it isn't something of my direct concern."

M.O.M closed her eyes. "I do not know what is going on with Martin Mystery, but the bird is of direct concern to you. Isaac...there are things that I still believe you are too young to understand."

Isaac's heart was stinging with pain; so his mother **was** keeping secrets from him still. But considering what he saw in that one dream, he was willing to let it slide. "Mom," he said softly, "I'll let you tell me when you are ready to."

Mildly surprised at the warmth in Isaac's voice, she smiled softly. "Thank you, Isaac."

She then broke the connection, and sighed heavily in her chair, placing a hand on her fore-head. _He's starting to grow suspicious, _she thought, _and as much as I want to tell him; to shelter him from what is going to happen...I just can't._

As a mother, she wanted to protect her son. But also as the Center's head on Earth, and by the restrictions she herself laid down, she couldn't divulge that information. She still puzzled to herself about that demon that Isaac said was in Martin's nightmare. She knew it was important, but she also knew that if something to do with it in the past did occur, she wiped her's and Martin's minds for good reason, along with whoever else was involved in the incident.

She began to suspect it had to do with the training mission she sent Martin on a while back...

"So M.O.M was just as confused about what happened as we were?"

The next day after lunch, as Martin, Diana and Isaac had spares in the afternoon, Isaac decided to come clean about his little discussion with M.O.M the previous day. "On the part about the demon," Isaac explained, "yes. However, she is definitely hiding something from me that is personal, and affects me. I just wish I knew what it is. I have a suspicion as to what it is, but it's so incredible that I've dismissed it."

Martin saw a curious mix of fear and anger in Isaac's eyes; fear likely because of what he suspected, and anger because of M.O.M was keeping secrets from him. On that note, Martin had enough...

"Isaac, just what is the relationship between you and M.O.M?" Martin interrogated him as he dragged Isaac into an empty room. "I know that she's supposed to know your dad, but the way you two act around each other, it's like you are family."

Isaac simply closed his eyes, and smiled mischievously. Martin's pupils shrank; if Isaac was ever asked a question pertaining to him, and he simply replied with a smile like that, he was usually saying that the person was correct. And Martin knew that there was only one way Isaac could have been connected to M.O.M by blood...

"WHHAAAAAAAAAA-" He screamed, before Isaac clamped a hand over his mouth, and silenced him. "Do you want the whole school to hear?" Isaac asked the trembling Martin, and let his hand go of the latter's mouth.

"S-s-SHE'S YOUR MOTHER?" Martin exploded, and jumped back, completely unable to contain his shock. "I mean, your actual mother?"

Isaac sighed; was this everyone's reactions when they heard M.O.M was his mother? "Yes, she is my mother."

Instead of shooting off some smart remark, Martin simply looked at Isaac. That made Isaac's behaviour, and sometimes hostile attitude towards M.O.M crystal clear. "So that woman you seemed to resent so much back then...that was M.O.M?"

"Who else could it possibly be," Isaac responded.

"But after we left, you seemed to be in much higher spirits and more positive about her."

"You can call it a temporary light if you want, but after that, reality sank back in."

Martin frowned at Isaac. "So in the end, you were trying to hold onto something that you actually once gave up. Why?"

Isaac's eyes widened. That simple, one-word question that could pierce anyone's armour if given in the right context. Isaac averted his eyes, and from Martin's perspective, they looked sad. "I...have a lot to explain to you. But you must promise to not tell Diana..."

"REALLY? YOU ARE SERIOUS?"

"Yeah, I've got another comic done, and Torrington is getting the exclusive first launch."

Diana and Jenni were both squealing in delight over Marvin's announcement that he had published another comic. It's quite paradoxial how that works; they are both irritated, if not repulsed when Martin talks about his paranormal obsession, or has a new comics based on paranormal creatures to show off, but they absolutely adore Marvin and call him cool when that happens.

-**As the author of this story, I don't understand how this happens myself. Just watch _The Third Eye_ for a canonical event such as what I described above**.-

"That is great!" Diana said admiringly. "When is the shipment going to be here?"

"It'll be coming to Torrington on Wednesday," Marvin stated proudly. "I also plan on hosting a party to celebrate the new issue, and I'd like to invite you two as my dates."

The girls nearly collapsed right there; a double date with Marvin was a dream for them! How daring he was to them!

"Of course we're coming," Jenni said in delight, "I just can't wait to see it!"

"I bet it's going to be good," Diana said happily, "I bet even Martin and Isaac will like it..."

The smile disappeared from her face as she thought about them. She reminded herself that Martin seemed to have some rivalry with Marvin, and she also remembered what she had said to Isaac. Even after apologizing, it still hurt...

Marvin noticed this, and wasn't exactly pleased. "Well," he stated, doing his best to hide his mild irritation, "if you can get them to come, I'm sure they won't mind. Now," he said, turning away, "I've got to invite more people to the party, and put up fliers. Later."

"See ya at the party, Marvin!" Jenni waved happily, and then turned to see Diana's face. She knew right away about what she was thinking about, and stopped smiling. "Is that all still bothering you?"

"Well, yeah," Diana admitted. "So much has happened recently in the past few weeks, that it's hard to keep up with it all."

Jenni couldn't say anything. Aside from that sudden argument she caught the tail end of between Diana and Isaac, she hadn't known that so many issues were present in the first place. It really made her wonder; it made her recall how how sometimes, she'd go looking, but be unable to find Martin and Diana for an entire afternoon, only to show up back at school the next day. The biggest kicker comes from the fact that even their rooms are empty during those days.

When Isaac came to Torrington, it happened with him too, and she reminded herself that it also happened with Marvin as well.

"Well, maybe the upcoming party will get your mind off things," Jenni tried to cheer her up.

Diana allowed herself a small smile. "I guess so. Maybe even for Martin and Isaac. I guess I'll go tell them."

Watching Diana walk away, a frown began to creep onto Jenni's features. Even with how cool Marvin was, there was still what was mentioned yesterday, and she knew Diana didn't forget either about what Isaac said.

In a class-room on the other end of the school, Isaac had finished explaining what basically amounted to his paranormal life story to Martin. Martin, on his part, was white with shock. "So that guy...it really was you...?"

"If you had asked earlier," Isaac stated, "I would have told you. I never told you initially, because it didn't concern you...and I wanted a fresh start," he admitted to himself.

"Still, you could have told us. We would have understood your behaviour, and-"

"Martin, I wore that mask for a reason." Isaac stated bluntly. "It is so that you two wouldn't see my face and recognized. On top of that, knowing you couldn't see my real face allowed me to be honest about my own feelings during that matter."

"...Well, I'm glad that things between you and Tatsuki changed," Martin smiled, "and that is what I'm counting."

"Thanks," Isaac stated.

A knock on the door sounded, as their conversation ended. Isaac turned and opened the door, and found Diana standing there. "What is it?" He asked her.

"I'd ask the same thing about you two," Diana replied, "talking about something in an empty class-room."

They look at each other, and then back at Diana. "I was just explaining to Martin about how M.O.M was my mother."

"You did WHAT?" Diana yelled in shock.

Isaac's eyes widened a little, and his brows then furrowed. "Are you saying that I _shouldn't _have told Martin?"

"Well..." Diana started, "it's just that you seemed intent on not having anyone know, even Martin."

"Things change, Diana. I trust Martin, so I felt it was best to tell him now."

Diana knew that Isaac was telling the truth, but also not the whole truth. He seemed uneasy. _What is it, _she thought, _what is it he decided to tell Martin, but not me? _Against her better judgement, a seed of contempt began growing inside Diana. She just couldn't understand it! Isaac was willing to tell Martin what are likely his biggest secrets, yet he wouldn't tell her.

"...Yeah," Diana said, bitterness creeping into her tone, "things do change."

Isaac noticed the tone, but before he could respond, Martin's U-Watch beeped, and looking back at him they saw that he was pointing to behind a nearby billboard in the room. Isaac nodded, and turned back to Diana. He whispered to her: "Diana, if there's something I haven't told you, it's because I'm not ready to. Just wait, okay?"

She whispered back: "Then what makes you more ready to tell Martin and not me?"

She pushed Isaac aside, and followed Martin into the portal wordlessly, leaving Isaac alone.

"...Because I'm afraid of how you'll react." He told himself, and followed after them.


	14. Prelude to Disaster

Prelude to Disaster

The mission and the day after that went without much incident, nor events of interest, so I'll skip straight to Wednesday. A LOT happened that evening...

For Isaac, it meant a disturbance of the peace and quiet of the normal school day. To him, everyone was going nuts over Marvin's new comic book. He partly voiced his frustrations with Martin after classes.

"Everywhere I go," he told Martin, "people are reading Marvin's new comic, and people are trying to force them on me. It is like he is some kind of celebrity."

"In case you haven't noticed," Martin responded, "Marvin **is** a celebrity at Torrington. Everyone went nuts when he came back. Didn't you notice?"

"I was more concerned about Diana's condition at the time," Isaac stated, "so I didn't really pay that much attention to him at all."

"He'd be miffed if he heard that," Martin stated, "he doesn't like being ignored, and I believe he was when you left with Diana."

"*sigh* It makes me want to be home-schooled again," Isaac mentioned.

Martin looked at Isaac quizzically. "Wait, you were home-schooled?"

"Always have been," Isaac explained, "since I was little. Dad travelled a lot, so the three of us decided to not bother with enrolling in any schools for the most part. It has certain advantages, such as allowing me to travel the world with Dad."

"Huh," Martin stated, "things weren't like that for me and Diana. After our parents married, Dad left us with Mom."

"Is that so?" Isaac stated, a hint of envy entering his voice. "For me, it wasn't that simple, though Dad always told me that mother always provided the material for my studies."

"GLEEP!" Martin let out involuntarily. Now he understood why Isaac always took those hellish assignments M.O.M handed out when she subbed in Torrington in stride – he worked with those kinds of things since he was in kindergarten! She did tone them down when Isaac came back though...

"Is something wrong?"

"Um...Nothing's wrong."

"I see, well-"

"Martin! Isaac!"

They looked over in unison at Jenny, who was running towards them with a comic in her hands. "There you two are. I've been looking everywhere for you boys."

"I take it you want us to read the comic?" Isaac asked.

"Well, yes." She answered. "It is very good, and virtually everyone except you two have read this comic."

"It's not exactly an interest of mine," Isaac stated. He then sighed, and stretched out a hand. "Fine, hand it over; I'm getting tired of people talking about it, and want to see what all the awe is about." She handed him the comic. "Thank you."

"I hope you like it. Now, I've got to get ready for the dance. See ya there!" She then went off towards her dorm room.

Martin watched as Isaac opened the comic. "Well, I'll admit it isn't bad," Martin spoke, "but it is so irritating when Diana and Jenni think a paranormal comic is cool when it's drawn by Marvin, yet they can't stand it when I talk about it."

"Well, you never stop talking about it," Isaac mentioned, "so it isn't a surprise. After all – Hm?"

The sudden break in Isaac's sentence made Martin curious. "What is it?"

Isaac pointed to a panel in the comic. Martin looked. What Isaac was pointing towards was a high-tech diving suit that the main character (patterned after Marvin) was wearing.

"That was designed to withstand high amounts of pressure in the deep sea," Isaac commented, "and a unique filtration system that takes oxygen from the water for use by the diver. A person can stay underwater almost indefinitely wearing it. The mask has built in night-vision, and even infrared and ultraviolet vision for the deepest parts of the ocean."

"And the burst of techno-talk is about...what?" Martin said confused.

Isaac glared at Martin. "I recognize the design. I wore it; tested it, and verified for use in the field."

The wide-eyed look from Martin gave Isaac his next question – what did he mean? Isaac pulled out his Center agent badge. They were a symbol of them being agents, and also a way for agents to identify each other. Some agents can join the Center at the same time, but go for years without meeting each other.

"From before I was an agent," Isaac stated, flipping open the badge, "and after I found out about the Center, I was a part-time Experimental Technologies tester. I went down further than most submarines have wearing that."

Martin's eyes grew even wider, and he snagged Isaac by his shirt collar. "YOU MEAN YOU TESTED ALL THOSE SUPER-COOL EXPERIMENTAL TECHNOLOGIES? AND YOU NEVER TOLD ME?"

"Yes, I did." Isaac said, dull-eyed.

"But testing all that stuff must be one of the coolest things in the world! What possessed you to give that up?"

"I already said I was only part-time. On top of that, it is more of a desk-job."

Martin was stupefied. "A desk job? Of all the nonsensical..."

"My point being," Isaac stated, taking Martin's hands off the collar of his shirt, "there is a strict policy against publishing any work with any content that is related to Center missions, or technologies."

"Do you really think that...?"

"Who knows?" Isaac stated, and closing the comic, got up. "I think I'll just send this to M.O.M to take a look at. If there's more to it than just the diving suit, then M.O.M will have to call Marvin out on it."

"You are a sadist, you know that?" Martin told Isaac.

"Define it in this situation."

"Well, you are taking this so casually. Not only would this make Marvin antagonistic towards you if it turns out to be true, but it might also make Diana mad at you. I mean, since people don't believe in the paranormal, it doesn't really..."

He paused when he saw the icy smile on Isaac's face. "Then I suppose I am. After all, I don't like it when people break the rules, even the Center's rules, and I don't care who I get mad in the process."

"...I take it back then," Martin spoke quietly, "you're a demon."

"Who is a demon?"

Isaac and Martin jumped out of their socks in shock, and looked over to Isaac's right to see Billy in front of a portal. "Sorry," Billy commented, "but M.O.M over-heard, and she'd like to see the comic herself."

Wordlessly, Isaac handed it over. "She told me not to read it until she has a look at it," Billy commented. "After all, she doesn't like it when agents publish works based on their missions." Saying that, he walked through the portal, and it vanished. A few seconds passed, and Martin looked like he wanted to ask a question.

"...No, I'd better not ask. I don't want to be transferred to the Center Field office at -"

"The South Pole? Then don't ask, and just assume," Isaac mentioned casually. He then smiled again. "How do you think that Mom keeps an eye on me and Dad while she's in the Center?" He then laughed, "Kufufufu," and walked away.

Martin stared after him. "Yeah," he said to himself, "that guy is the Devil."

Later that evening, Jenni and Diana almost literally dragged the two boys to the dance that Marvin was hosting. "Come on, you two," Jenni stated enthusiastically, "the dance has already started."

"I'm not really one for social gatherings like this," Isaac stated, "so I'm not really interested."

"Well, you came on Chirstmas day, didn't you?" Jenni replied.

Isaac's brow furrowed, and Diana averted her eyes. "I promised Diana that I'd go with her," he simply stated. "I didn't make such a promise this time."

Yet another puzzling thing for Jenni in her relationships with the two of them – when asking Diana about that day before, it was almost as if she didn't remember.

"Look," Diana told them, "we've already been invited by Marvin, and I think it would be best if you guys came too. It might fix a few things between the three of you, and -"

She was interrupted by the beeping of Martin's U-Watch. Jenni looked at the watch. She always thought it was just some fancy, sci-fi watch that Martin once bought, but then remembered that Marvin had a watch like that too...

"Would you look at that," Martin said happily, "it seems I'm being paged."

"For what?" Jenni asked.

They looked at each other. "Part-time services across Torrington," they both stated. "We do odd jobs here and there." Martin added.

"Excuse us," Diana said briefly, and dragged the two boys off by the collar like a kidnapper, leaving Jenni confused at what just happened.

"Do you two really have to go now," she said irritably.

"Mom's called Martin up," Isaac stated, "he at least needs someone to back him up."

"Well, can't you tell her other-wise? There are plenty of other agents, and-"

"Diana," Martin shot back, "can you just once not think about Marvin all the time? Yes, he's having a party. Yes, the entire school has been invited, but that doesn't mean we have to accept the invitation and shirk our duties to the Center, especially for a party celebrating Marvin's publishing of a Center mission in a co-" He covered his mouth.

"What?" Diana said flatly.

Isaac sighed, and explained what he saw in the comic. "So you decided to rat him out?" Diana said angrily.

"You almost seem upset," Isaac said irritated. "You're a by-the-book person, so why is it you are defending Marvin like this?"

"What is something like publishing a comic about a mission going to hurt?" Diana chastised Isaac. "Everyone believes the paranormal doesn't exist anyway, so there's no reason for such paranoia!"

"Maybe I am paranoid, but I also understand the reason behind the Center's secrecy. We protect them from the paranormal, and keep it secret from them so they can live out their lives peacefully, and not in fear of what they don't understand. Even something like this jeopardizes that secrecy and protection."

"It's just one comic book, Isaac! It'd take something like a video or something to be really worrisome!"

"It doesn't matter," Isaac said with finality. "He broke a rule about the Center's secrecy; you expect me to just turn a blind eye to it?"

"I expect you to be reasonable," Diana shouted angrily.

"Hey, guys-" Martin tried to interject.

"QUIET, WE'RE TALKING!" They both shouted at him, and he jumped back.

Diana turned back towards Isaac. "I don't know what it is," Diana spoke, "but for whatever reasons, you seem hostile towards Marvin, even when it looks like you aren't. Didn't you promise me you wouldn't cause any more trouble with Marvin?" She said sadly.

"You promised me you'd try to get along with Marvin," Diana spoke quietly, "yet I can see you aren't being truthful about it at all..."

Isaac stared at her coldly. "It's impossible to subvert Human nature, Diana. Hate, prejudice, **pride,"** he said, stressing the last word, "you can't just erase that with a simple promise; not even covering it up will remove the fact that events caused by those emotions happened."

"What do you mean?" Diana asked confused.

For just one moment, Isaac made a mistake he'd regret for a long time. In that moment, he became the sum total of his darkest emotions.

"That's a strange question from a former turn-coat like yourself."

The horror generated from that statement ripped through Diana's heart like a bullet. She realized in an instant what had really happened when Isaac encountered Octavia earlier – she told Isaac about how she manipulated Diana, yet Isaac took it to heart.

The anger and pain generated by that one sentence made her punch Isaac's head straight into a window. It shattered, and the impact caused the back of Isaac's head to bleed from being cut by broken glass. "DIANA!" Martin yelled out, and held her back.

A few moments later, Jenni came running around the bend. "I heard glass breaking! What just-" She gasped when she saw Isaac sitting against the wall under the broken window, and Diana being restrained.

"You..." Diana said weakly, and then she exploded. "YOU BASTARD! How can you possibly take what that bitch said to heart? How can you believe that it was all my fault? All we went through together...all the moments we shared..." She spoke painfully, remembering all those past missions, how they worked together, how they saved each other. She remembered their moments shared in Torrington; the kiss they shared just before the Typhon incident.

All those happy memories collided with the anger she felt at that moment, and drove her to tears of sadness.

"...How could you," she spoke sobbing, "just forget all that...?"

Through all of this, Isaac looked at her in shock, and began to realize what he had just done. How could he apologize? He said so himself, he couldn't forgive anyone who went against the rules of the Center, and Diana once went against the Center in its entirety. He knew that Diana never intended any harm, but...still...

A lone tear coursed down from his right eye. He meant what he said. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't take it back now. Colin taught him that.

"...What I only said was the truth," he said calmly, "it's too late to retract it now. I haven't forgotten what we are to each other...But I can't overlook what you have done in the past."

He looked at Jenni's horrified face, and his sadness only grew. "You shouldn't have heard any of this."

"...Martin," Isaac stated, "go with the girls." He began to walk away. "I can take care of things on my own."

They all just watched as Isaac walked away into the shadows of the corridor, and past the bend. Martin was at a complete loss of words. This was the worst he had ever seen things between Diana and Isaac. He just couldn't comprehend how it came down to this. "...Di..." He said weakly.

Diana didn't look up, only staring at the tiles in the floor. As Isaac said, he couldn't overlook what Diana had done in the past...so she shouldn't overlook her feelings for Isaac because of this. "...Please go help him." Diana said softly.

Martin nodded slowly, and letting go of his sister, ran off in the direction Isaac went. She fell back against the wall, and slid down it. She brought her hands up to her face, and began to cry uncontrollably. Tender hands wrapped themselves around her arms, and pulled Diana up from the ground. Diana's tear-filled eyes looked over at Jennifer.

"..." Diana tried to speak, but she couldn't.

"I won't bother with asking what is going on," Jenni said softly. "This is something for you two to work out, no matter how hard it is."

"I'll help you back to your room." Jenni stated, and walked with the sobbing Diana back to her dorm room, where they stayed the rest of the night.


	15. Poisonous Sting

**It is has been a long time since I have updated any of my works on Fanfiction, so my apologies to anyone who has been waiting for a long time.**

**I do not own Martin Mystery; it is the property of Marathon Productions. Isaac Alexander is an Original Character**

**Isaac Alexander is also present in TheKageTenshi's _The Red Monarch_, and lil noir neko's _War._**

Poisonous Sting

"I thought I told you to go with the girls. I said I didn't need help."

"Diana told me to go with you. Besides, I have some words to say to you."

They had not said anything when they went through the portal, nor when they went up the elevator. It was only when they were outside M.O.M's office that Isaac decided to start the discussion.

"Like what?" Isaac said dejectedly.

"What the hell, Isaac!" Martin said fiercely. "We all know Octavia is a Grade-A bitch, and you of all people know that she sent those guys to kill you ten years ago! Why are you taking her words about Diana betraying the Center so-"

"Because that is what happened, didn't it?" Isaac countered.

"Yes, but Diana and I still saved the Center! Yes, I was angry with Diana back then, but I'm just shocked that you of all people would treat her like that! She was tricked and lied to, and-"

"But she abandoned the Center all the same." Isaac interrupted. "Being deceived or tricked does not matter. None of it would have happened in the first place if Diana did not have the mind set or the motivation to go against the Center in the first place!"

"...!" Martin could not respond to that comment. He hated that he couldn't, and he knew that it was because of one thing: Isaac was right. He had sometimes considered that, for want of a nail, if Octavia wasn't some revenge-driven psycho that wanted to destroy the Center and was using Diana to get what she wanted...Diana would have never come back.

But the real reason he could not answer was because of something he realized on the mission he went on immediately after that incident: he pushed Diana that far.

It was his fault. He looked into Isaac's eyes. He would consider it a mistake later on; Isaac saw what was in them.

"But then again, the person truly responsible might be the one who sent her over that edge in the first place," he said coldly, and they finally entered M.O.M's office. There were no gadgets this time for Martin to inevitably destroy by fooling around with them, or artifact to break. Just M.O.M in her desk, looking at the two boys, particularly Isaac.

"...I saw what happened with you and Diana," she told Isaac, "I must say that I'm slightly disappointed; I expected more proper behaviour from you than that."

"...Just tell us what the mission is," he replied, looking away.

Olivia looked softly at her son. It sort of surprised her how she saw that he was tearing himself up over what he said. Behind all that hate, she knew that Isaac still loved Diana. Colin would sometimes chide M.O.M about the same self-defeatism whenever things went bad on a major mission, or when it came to a point where her own self-loathing about leaving Isaac for the Center got the better of her.

"Martin...your father has gone missing."

Isaac immediately turned to see Martin's face. It looked as if he had just been shot. "Wait...What do you mean by that?"

The growling sound in Martin's voice startled Isaac enough, but then he smashed his fist against the deck, actually cracking it. M.O.M jumped out of her chair, and Isaac wrapped his arms around Martin. "Martin, get a hold of yourself!"

Martin shook off Isaac, and looked down at the floor panting. Isaac looked at M.O.M, who promptly went into the details. "Your father was working in the Sahara Desert, unearthing some ancient Egyptian ruins. Apparently he just vanished last night without a trace."

"Do you think he is okay?" Isaac said, hoping that M.O.M's answer would re-assure Martin.

"...I hope so."

-**.**

**Pray for Isaac; his threads of life will soon be severed one by one.**

**One can only guess what will rise from the ash...**


	16. When He's Ready

When He's Ready

As much as Jenni liked to think that her life was perfectly rational and normal, she had to admit that there were some things that existed as mysteries.

Among such mysteries was Tatsuki Miyabe, who came to Torrington half a year back and left within the space of a month, and the fact that she could sometimes never find Martin and Diana for a whole day or more at a time during the last two school years on a common basis. When Isaac came to Torrington, the same trend happened with him, right in time with Martin and Diana. That was something that she came to accept as part of life, and decided not to pry into.

Then the events of recent days happened.

Looking at her best friend sitting with tears in her eyes on her bed, Jenni just did not know what was going on. She really liked Marvin as much as any other student in the school, because he was something of a celebrity. The party that Marvin held to celebrate his new comic release was proof of that. She could get Martin being miffed with Marvin's popularity, because he was always like that.

Isaac Alexander was a completely different story. The most she knew about him was that he was a childhood friend of Martin and Diana from seven years ago, and what he was willing to say about himself when asked. He was like a local enigma...an enigma that seemed to have it out for Marvin. Well, that is what it seemed like around two days ago, but today really had her worried.

She had no idea what Isaac said to Diana that caused her to punch his head into a window, but what she heard Diana say definitely implied Isaac heard...well, something about Diana that might or might have not been true. After all, she never knew Isaac to be cruel for the sake of it, because he usually had reason.

_Well_, Jenni thought, _here goes nothing._ Jenni sat down besides Diana, and asked one question.

"What is going on between you and Isaac? I've never seen you act like this with each other before."

And Jenni knew what she had seen between Isaac and Diana. It was no secret that Isaac and Diana had a very close relationship with each other. But what she didn't know was now the problem she was seeing now.

Diana looked at Jenni. She knew that she could say anything about the Center; a contract of confidentiality and secrecy came with working for the Center, so you just cannot tell anyone about it, much less hint about its existence. She could not tell Jenni about Octavia either...

...Or could she?

She had told Jenni about the Creative Institute for Higher Learning (a cover-up name for Octavia's Creature Intelligence Hybrid Labratory) when she decided to apply for it full-time. It was a decision she came to regret. When she told Jenni about why she came back to Torrington, she stated truthfully that "such a place did not suit me". She did not want to, but she needed someone to confide in. If she just omitted some details...

"...It is about Dean Paine." Diana said.

"Paine?" Jenni remarked, a bit more confused than helped. "You mean the woman who sent you that letter recommending you her institute?"

"Pretty much."

"Girl, you are just confusing me now. What does she have to do with-"

"...Bad blood between Octavia and Isaac's mom, Ms. Mandale*."

"Oh, I..." Jenni began, but then stopped.

_Ms. Mandale?_

_Isaac's mom?_

_Isaac's mom, Ms. Mandale?_

Diana covered her mouth in shock. _Damn, how could I let __**that **__slip?_

"WHAT?" Jenni jumped up in shock. "ISAAC'S MOM IS OUR SUBSTITUTE TEACHER?"

Diana chuckled nervously, allowing a smile to come to her face. "Yeah, sorry about that."

"...I knew it," Jenni whispered, "no wonder all her assignments became easier when Isaac came here."

"Yeah, things were a bit easier..." Diana spoke, letting the sadness come back.

"...Did something that bad really happen between the two of them?"

Diana told Jenni, "...A long time ago and back when I went to CIHL, yes."

_Twice, _Jenni realized, _something bad happened to Isaac's mom – no, his family twice because of that woman?_

Jenni's brow furrowed, and she came to a decision. "You do not need to say anymore."

Diana looked at Jenni questioningly. "Whatever happened, it is very personal to Isaac, and apparently to you as well. It was rude of me to ask like this. I think that I will wait for when you are ready to talk about it, and...for when he's ready."

Diana looked at Jenni in surprise, but could only give her a sad smile. "...Thank you, Jenni."

"It isn't that big a deal," Jenni stated. "I am just giving the two of you space. After all, that is one of the things friends are for, right?"

"...I hope you are right."

_I'm sorry, Jenni, _Diana thought, _but because of the Center...I don't think we will ever be able to tell you._


	17. Whispering God Full Chapter

Whispering God

"So...this is where you think Dad vanished to?"

"Yes, Martin. When we retired to sleep, the doors on this tomb were open...but when we woke up this morning, Gerard was missing and the door was closed."

Isaac nodded as he listened to the discussion. Martin knew this Peter, because Martin accompanied his father on many digs when he was younger, and met the people that he worked with. It made Isaac regret a little that he did not try to get to know many of the fellow archaeologists that his father worked with when he wasn't working alone when he was younger.

But when he found out that quite a few of the ones that he did know were also Center employees, he began to suspect that all of them were connected to the Center in one way or another.

_Dad never really left the Center, _Isaac grimaced, _and I never really associated with anyone who was normal. It sometimes feels like that I never had a normal life..._

**"_We were never normal; we were 'sheltered' in a life of lies."_**

_Who am I kidding, _Isaac reasoned, _My parents were both Center agents as well, and Mom the freakin' Head of the Center. And these things happening with me...I might not be normal either. My life might be nothing more than one of lies._

Isaac did not know that another voice had whispered this thought to him, as it had been whispering for the past week.

"...Though I am surprised that you are here right now," Peter admitted, "I did not know that Gerard invited you and your two friends over for the dig. Where's Diana?"

"She did not want to come," Isaac interjected, "she does not like the desert weather."

"Yeah," Martin added, knowing that Diana hated the blazing hot days and freezing cold nights, and all the sand everywhere, "pretty much."

"Ah. I figured as much when she was very eager to leave when I last saw you kids. Still, she loved the hieroglyphs, ancient statues and artifacts we found. I think that was one of the few things you two had in common."

"Enough of memory lane," Isaac said with a growl, "how do we get the door open?"

_Jeez, _Martin thought to himself, _he's been really irritable this past week. I wonder if it is because he has to leave Torrington?_

"Rather simple actually," Peter said, "it is a combination lock door, but it also needs a key for the combination lock to be made useable."

"Which means that we can't open it normally," Martin growled through gritted teeth. "Who has the key?"

"I have it." Peter said, pulling the key out of his pocket and handed it to Isaac, who placed it on the door. A full turn to the right, a quarter turn to the left and half turn to the right unlocked the knob.

"The key was found with a group of Egyptian soldiers that were nearby. It's like they stood guard over someone very important in that tomb until they died...or someone the ancient Egyptians considered very evil."

"What do you mean," Martin asked.

"Just read the hieroglyphs."

Both Isaac and Martin went over the door to read the hieroglyphs on it, and both their eyes widened at the first line alone:

"He who worships for Apep, foe of Ma'at..."

Isaac and Martin looked quizzically at Peter. Apep was the original Egyptian word for Apophis, the deification of darkness and evil in Egyptian mythology. Egyptians usually worshipped **against **Apep, not for him. "And you just went and opened this tomb?"

"We thought it is as normal as any other tomb, and it is rare to find someone who actually worshipped Apophis. What is customs were and the nature of the worship is-"

Faster than Isaac could react because he was reading the rest of the inscription, Martin grabbed Peter by the collar in a rage. "THEN THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULTS! DAD IS GONNA DIE BECAUSE YOU-" Martin's triage was interrupted when Isaac yanked him off.

"Get a hold of yourself!" Isaac yelled while shaking Martin. "The only one to blame right now is your own Dad!" Martin looked ready to lash out at Isaac when Isaac explained why. "The curse written on this tomb states that whoever opens the tomb will be offered up as sacrifice by the priest entombed inside."

Martin's eyes widened. "And it was Gerard who opened this tomb, wasn't it?" Isaac stated, looking back at Peter, who was pretty shaken. Realizing that he was asked a question, his eyes became downcast.

"Gerry had apprehensions about opening this tomb for some reason," he confessed, standing up and brushing the sand off his clothes. "I asked him why, but then he said the strangest thing: "Hey, it's not like Egyptian gods exist too.""

Isaac knew what those words meant, and so did Martin. Gerard was told about the Center after the second time was caught up in all the paranormal hi-jinx. Getting taken over by a giant parasitic worm at the cellular level is a guarantee for that at times. Martin himself had gone to his fair share of hidden, curse-ridden pyramids and Egyptian tombs himself. He recalled that he once travelled to such a place in the early days to stop Sergei from destroying the Center. It was after he met Java, but before Diana joined the Center.

_Huh, _Martin thought to himself, _it's funny what you can remember given the right circumstances._

"Martin, we did not know that this curse would somehow turn out to be real." Peter pleaded. "I am sorry for all of this..." Peter paused. A thought had occurred to Peter because of Martin's out-burst.

"No, I'm sorry too. I do not know what came over me."

"...Your father didn't invite you two over, did he?" Peter questioned.

Isaac smiled mysteriously. "No." He pulled out the knob to the tomb's door. "We came to save him."

Peter was just confused now. Gerard only went missing last night, yet his son and a friend of his came to save him from half-way across the world.

"Now, how did you open this thing?" Isaac asked innocently while experimentally turning the knob. "It feels like a combination lock."

"It's a thirteen-turns combination lock."

"Thirteen!? Is that even possible?"

"It is for this one," Peter confirmed. "Twenty guards on the outside until they died, and a thirteen-turns combination lock that needs a key to even use."

Isaac and Martin exchanged a glance. The Eighth Dynasty of Egypt did not want **anyone** getting to whoever was inside.

* * *

After five minutes of turning the lock (some turns required going around upward to eight times), a bang came from inside. They had finally unlocked the door.

"Thank goodness you kept notes on what the combination was," Isaac mentioned to Peter. "It would have taken us hours to open it otherwise, if not days."

"To tell the truth, it took us two days to open the tomb in the first place." Peter admitted. "Now I wish that we didn't. ...You boys be careful, okay?"

"Don't worry, Pete," Martin stated. "We've done this kind of thing before." Noting the even more confused look on Peter's face, he added, "I'll tell you when we are done." With that, Martin and Isaac went into the tomb.

"...Gerard," Peter wonder, "do you have any idea about what your son does?"

* * *

If the door's complexity had not convinced the boys that someone didn't want the sorcerer inside the tomb to get out, then all of the protective spells inside the tomb indicated that much. The problem that both of them realized was that the Egyptians potentially shot the world in the foot.

"Really," Isaac commented, "why did the Egyptians give this guy a punishment of eternal suffering if it only makes him more dangerous when someone accidentally wakes him up?"

"That's my dad you are talking about," Martin said with a growl. "The Egyptians who laid this curse out are all dead anyway, so they probably didn't care about all the people they'd hurt if this guy did get out. It is like they did not give a damn."

"I can't help but notice, but you have been on a hair trigger as of late."

"I am on a hair trigger?" Martin stated. "You have not been Mr. Nice Guy either. In fact, I would you've become vindictive towards...well everyone."

Isaac turned to Martin. "I know what I have been like the past week," Isaac admitted, "but what I am worried about is how uncharacteristically angry you have been lately. You have no right to call me out as a result."

"Perhaps I am just pissed off about how things seem to be falling apart around me!" Martin protested. "You are leaving Torrington, but what is worse is how much you have hurt Diana!"

The voice spoke again to Isaac as it continued to enroach.

"**Disregard what he is saying. Diana endangered our mother's life; we had every right. Tell Martin why he is no better."**

"How I've hurt Diana?! You are the one responsible for Diana going to Octavia in the first place! You just had to be the arrogant ass that never shuts up when you one-upped her on the Center evaluations! You had to rub it in her face, you had to mock her, and you had to flaunt your new sense of superiority! THAT is how you are Martin, and that is why-"

"DO YOU THINK THAT I DON'T KNOW THAT!" Martin yelled. "You were not with us back then, so that gives you no right to draw your own conclusions, even if they do turn out to be right!"

He turned away. "At least Diana and I learnt from the mistakes we made back then. You weren't there. You would never understand." He began walking down the corridor.

Isaac stood there, listening to Martin's foot steps. _Not again, _Isaac lamented, _damn it, not again. Why am I like this!?_ Unknowingly, his conscious thoughts gave over to another. The other twisted Isaac's face into a mocking smile.

"**It is as Martin stated,**" the thing said with a hushed mocking. "**the Isaac he knows – that is you – would never say such things." ** The other leaned against the tomb wall. **"So who is the real Isaac? Is it you, the Isaac who shoves all his negative emotions into the back of his conscious...or me, the Isaac who embraced those emotions? The one who knows the truth about ourselves?"**

"Isaac, get over here!"

He receded, and Isaac snapped back into consciousness. "Great, now I am fading out of consciousness at random." Isaac placed a hand to his face. "As if I couldn't get any weirder."

He looked down the hallway to see Martin looking back at him. "Sheesh, now it is talking to yourself? Are you losing it or something?"

"Talking to myself," Isaac stated, walking towards Martin. "What do you-"

"You were whispering something to yourself." Martin explained. "I couldn't hear anything, but you had this creepy smile on your face."

Isaac could not say anything. He did not know how to respond to that, and Martin did not know how to enquire further about Isaac's odd behaviour either.

"Never mind," Martin said, shaking his head. "It would waste too much time, and Dad might be..." He couldn't finish.

Isaac could only hate himself even more. He had chewed out Martin for how he was partly responsible for Diana joining up with Octavia, when Martin was worried about his father's life. He did not know why he was being so heartless. He could only put a hand on Martin's shoulder.

"Take your hand off my shoulder," Martin protested quietly.

"...We will save your Dad, Martin." Isaac assured him. ", and after we do**...**I'll leave Torrington right away." Martin looked at him in surprise. "I do not know what is going on with myself...and I don't want to hurt anyone else."

"...All right," Martin said solemnly, "even if I do not like why you need to-"

An audible shiver went through Isaac's body, one that Martin felt through Isaac's arm. Moments later, the hieroglyphs on the wall began to glow. "Isaac, what's wrong?"

"Something bad is happening; let's move!" Isaac ran deeper into the tomb.

_There he goes again, _Martin thought as he followed suit. _I do not know why, but it's like Isaac is some kind of magic detector._

* * *

The passage opened to an expansive room, and the boys were forced to reconsider the possibility that the enchantments and hieroglyphs were not meant to keep the sorcerer in the tomb; they were meant to imprison a God.

The murals on the wall were all the reason they needed. The murals seemed to depict an order of events from left to right. To summarize the story told on the wall, a priest uses a complex ritual to chain up Seth and drag him off Ra's sun boat. After that, the priest then sacrifices a victim on a specially prepared altar. The magic in the altar would empower Apep and cause him to permanently devour Ra, permanently casting the world into darkness.

They swiftly looked around the room. On the left altar across from them, Seth was chained upon a stone table. On the other was an unconscious Gerard Mystery, and a grey, withered Egyptian priest chanting the incantations for a spell.

"Dad!" Martin yelled as he ran towards the altar, activating his U-Watch. Isaac was barely able to push Martin out of the way before one of the statues of Apep came to life as a real serpent and lunged for Martin.

They stood up and found the other three statues came to life, two guarding the priest and the other coming towards them. "Damn it," Martin said, tossing Isaac an X-Rod and taking an I-Cutter for himself, "if it is not one thing, it is another!"

"Just keep a cool head Martin," Isaac told him, unaware of a strange colour change the hieroglyphs were going through, "we can't afford to-"

"BOY, LOOK OUT!" Seth screamed at Isaac.

"Lose our heads" was the term Isaac was going to use, had bolts of grey lightning not struck him and sent him flying into the nearby wall.

"ISAAC!" Martin tried to reach his friend, but one of the snakes coiled around his legs and caused him to fall, while the second moved its head towards him, jaws opening to show venom dripping from its fangs.

"_Stop." _The priest spoke in Ancient Egyptian. The snakes uncoiled and the priest drew a hieroglyph in the air. _To me,_ the hieroglyph read, and Martin was pulled towards the priest against his will. _"I was intending to use the man," _the priest said, "_but you have been touched by the primordial chaos. You will serve my purpose better."_

The priest pushed Gerard off the table, and forced Martin's head down. _"The blade and stone will carry out my enchantments," _he stated. "_You should not have brought your priest-friend here...or whatever he is." _He looked at the snakes, and glared at Isaac. _"Kill him."_

There it was again; another individual seeing him as something different than Human. But that was not Isaac's concern as he struggled against the energy binding him, helpless as the priest started to finish the incantation and the snakes reared up towards. All he heard was the priest's words: "You should not have brought your priest-friend here."

_It's all my fault, _Isaac thought. _If I had not been here, then-_

**"SHUT UP, YOU WORTHLESS BRAT!"**

The priest finished and the blade sparked. Gerard was regaining consciousness, and Martin could not break out of the seal placed upon him. _Who, _Isaac thought in surprise, _who is there?_

**"Let out all our anger! Let me out, and I will do what you cannot!"**

Time slowed in Isaac's mind. The voice ringed in his head as he watched the priest lower the blade to Martin's neck. "NO!" Gerard screamed, but one of the snakes swatted him into the wall with his tail.

A noise began to build in Isaac's throat, and the snakes reared their heads, teeth dripping with an acidic venom.

"**LET! ME! OUT!"**

_...All right, _Isaac agreed, _just save them._

The snakes lunged for Isaac.

* * *

_**OOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGHH HHHH!**_

A feral scream accompanied an explosive blast echoing from inside the tomb reached Peter's ear, causing him to jump. "What the hell was that?!" He exclaimed, looking into the tomb.

* * *

Isaac's screams rang through the chamber and drew everyone's attention, god, undead and Human alike towards it source. A sapphire sphere of lightning and fire erupted from Isaac, destroying the grey energy binding him, vaporizing the snakes lunging for him, and pulverizing the wall behind him into a cloud of dust.

"Isaac!" Martin yelled, struggling against his bonds.

Who walked out of the dust...was not Isaac. The figure that came from the dust was covered in black and white tattoos that glowed and radiated sparks of energy. The right side was covered in white, while the left was covered in black. The change happened with Isaac's hair as well, creating a bi-colour effect with his hair being half-black, half-white. But what Martin noticed the most was Isaac's left eye. It glowed a crimson red that eerily reminded him of Sousuke.

"_What?!"_ The priest reacted by ordering his last two snakes to lunge for "Isaac". Nonchalantly, "Isaac" decapitated the snakes mid-lunge with a strike of his hands, a coating of energy covering his hands.

Undaunted, the priest drew another hieroglyph. _Burn._ The hieroglyph flew forward and impacted "Isaac" coating him in fire...and he just dispelled it.

"_No". _The priest backed away from the table.

"Isaac" stopped briefly and looked at Martin. "How pitiful." He stated simply. A small sphere of energy formed in "Isaac's" hand, and he pushed it towards Martin. Upon contact with the seal, it broke, and Martin immediately ran towards Gerard.

"Dad!"

"Martin," Gerard asked shakily, "how long has Isaac been able to do that?"

"This is the first time I've seen such a thing,_" _Martin replied. "I do not know what the hell Isaac has become."

"Isaac" smiled. "You would not be off the mark if you associated us with Sousuke Miyabe. He is at least one thing you referenced when you first saw us like this, right?"

Martin's eyes widened with shock. This person was not Isaac at all. Martin recognized the smile as similar to the one he saw in the hallway. And referring to himself in the plural...

"_You..." _The priest spoke in a fearful voice as he prepared another rune. Annihilate. "_What are you!?"_

"Isaac" turned his head towards the priest. "You would have lived a little longer if you did not remind us of your presence."

Martin froze. _Wait! He's not going to...!_

"But I will be to the point," "Isaac" stated, focusing energy and fire into a blade around his hand. "Everyone has negative emotions that they bottle up inside themselves if they do not embrace them. These sometimes manifest as dopplegangers, or a separate personality. I fall into a different category: I am one half of a soul divided."

Before the priest could react, "Isaac" leapt forward and ran the priest through his stomach, his hand ripping out the other side of his body in a gout of blood that destroyed the priest's spine and buried into the stone wall behind him.

"What the...?" Gerard gasped, shaken by the action.

"I've waited ten years to be let out," "Isaac" stated, "and I decided to give myself a name during that time." The priest coughed up blood that spattered over "Isaac's" shoulder, and stared at it in disbelief. "So before you die, you should know the name of the man who killed you."

"My name...is Void."

In his horror, Martin could only conclude that the name seemed suiting: this half of Isaac seemed completely void of compassion and love.

"I...Impossible," the priest coughed, the iron taste of blood on his tongue. "I should be undying."

Those were the priest's last ironic words. Martin saw Void's arm flex. "NOO!" Martin yelled.

In a swift, upward motion, Void bisected the priest's upper body. The priest's head was vaporized by the energy-coated arm, and a rain of blood splattered over Void's body. "My power transcends magic, lich."

Gerard's jaw hung there in disbelief. He could not believe what he just saw. Isaac killed the priest in cold blood.

Martin's stomach recoiled, and he gripped it to keep himself from vomiting. He did not understand, but it was like he saw such bloodshed before...

"Wake up, Isaac," Void stated. "It is time you saw what we really are."

The markings receded, and Isaac's appearance returned to normal. Isaac blinked. "What the-" He stifled his breath when he looked down to see the remains of the priest.

Isaac looked over at Martin and Gerard, his breathing taking on a rushed, shaky tone. "Did...Did I-"

**"Remember."** Void's voice echoed.

Isaac gripped his head in pain, and fell to his knees...

* * *

"_Is that all?" Isaac said coldly. Isaac focused his mind, and immediately, a blue arc of electromagnetic energy lashed out from...and sliced the man's arm clean off from the shoulder, and the arm fell dead to the ground with the gun, as the man screamed in pain._

"_DIMITRI!" The other man stated, looking at his injured partner and back at Isaac. "You little freak!" He aimed his gun at Isaac. _

_Harold felt the ferocity of the electromagetic energy around Isaac. He felt what was coming before Dimitri's comrade did. He recognized that Isaac was running on animalistic instinct now but he called out to his son anyway. "Isaac, NO!"_

_Isaac swung his arm towards the agent that Harold knew as Evan, and the energy arcing out from Isaac decapitated the agent cleanly. Dimitri watched his comrade's body fall lifeless to the ground, and looked at Isaac. Fear crippled his judgement. "P-please don't kill me! I'm...I'm sorry." he falsely pleaded, more concerned about his own life. "I was only doing it on Agent Paine and Doctor D'evreux's orders, I-"_

_A lance of light through his heart stopped his words. "Liar." Dimitri's body fell down lifeless on the grown, and Isaac's vision went black._

* * *

"...No..." Isaac muttered, his voice shaking. "I...I killed them...butchered them..." Tears ran down his face. He could not stifle the scream of anguish any longer.

Martin's heart ached when he saw Isaac in that state. He had never seen Isaac so vulnerable and broken in his life.


	18. Final Days - Preview

Final Days – Preview

"Just how could you keep such a thing secret from your son!?"

Harold flinched. Between fathers, Gerard had every right to call him out on recent events. But Harold knew that there were things that Gerard did not know about the situation.

He responded. "It was...necessary. It was for Isaac's own good."

"His own good?" Martin protested. "He's traumatized and covered in blood. Hell, from what he said, he has apparently killed some people the same way before! How is that for his own good!?"

"This does not have to do with keeping his powers a secret from him!" Harold responded. "Nor does it have to do with the part of him that calls himself Void!"

"Then what is it?" Gerard asked.

Harold lifted his eyes to look at Gerard. "Gerard, you are a father too. I know you would do what is best for your children."

"Of course," Gerard admitted, "but I would never keep secrets like this from him."

"In different circumstances, I would not have kept it secret...But those circumstances do not exist."

_Harold, _he told himself, _stop delaying and tell them the truth._

Harold's voice broke as he finally admitted it to himself. "...Isaac is dying. He has been dying for the past ten years."


	19. Final Days - Full Chapter

Final Days

The agents were supposed to come from the Center came as soon as Martin reported to M.O.M about what had happened, as per the usual clean-up crew. Instead, there was only one agent who arrived on the scene: Isaac's father.

"Harold", Gerard said, standing up. "I…About your son, I am so sorry about-"

"Do not apologize; I did not expect it to happen so soon."

Gerard was shocked into silence. Martin just looked over at Isaac, whose eyes widened in shock briefly only to be replaced by a thousand-yard stare. A harsh anger welled up inside Martin. The only thing he could think of was how horrible it was of Harold – and of M.O.M – to keep something as big as this from Isaac.

Harold looked around the room and surveyed the destruction within it. He locked eyes with Seth, sparing a glance over at the lich's body.

"I hope that things haven't been much of an inconvenience."

"It would have been if not for your son, Alexander," Seth spoke, "but I suggest you find some way to keep that other inside him suppressed. It is a dark being that dwells within him."

Harold's eyes narrowed. "Watch your tongue; regardless if he acts separate from the one in control, that other is still my blood as well."

Gerard and Martin were both aghast. It was bad enough that something like that was kept hidden from Isaac, but Harold also knew about the other – Void, as he called himself.

"Perhaps," Seth relented, "but you know as well as I do that the boy's current state is not natural." With that, Seth vanished from the room.

Harold sighed and walked over to his son. "…Isaac…" Harold tried to muster the words, but he couldn't. He looked over at Martin and Gerard with a sidelong glance. "Let's go back to the Center, Isaac; I'm sure Colin can explain things better than I can."

Isaac's face remained downcast. He refused to look at Harold, much less acknowledge him as his father…

* * *

"Just how could you keep such a thing secret from your son!?"

Harold flinched. Between fathers, Gerard had every right to call him out on recent events. But Harold knew that there were things that Gerard did not know about the situation.

He responded. "It was...necessary. It was for Isaac's own good."

"His own good?" Martin protested. "He's traumatized and covered in blood. Hell, from what he said, he has apparently killed some people the same way before! How is that for his own good!?"

"This does not have to do with keeping his powers a secret from him!" Harold responded. "Nor does it have to do with the part of him that calls himself Void!"

"Then what is it?" Gerard asked.

Harold lifted his eyes to look at Gerard. "Gerard, you are a father too. I know you would do what is best for your children."

"Of course," Gerard admitted, "but I would never keep secrets like this from him."

"In different circumstances, I would not have kept it secret...But those circumstances do not exist."

_Harold, _he told himself, _stop delaying and tell them the truth._

Harold's voice broke as he finally admitted it to himself. "...Isaac is dying. He has been dying for the past ten years."

A cold silence fell over the room as Gerard and Martin tried to come to grips with what was Harold said. "Wait," Martin broke the silence, "what do you mean by 'dying'?"

"Didn't Void make mention of it?" Harold asked Martin. "He probably mentioned that he was a soul divided."

"Yes, he did," Gerard answered, "but what does that have to do with anything?"

"Everything."

Harold activated the Ultra U-Watch on his wrist and accessed the Legendex. He typed in the keywords **black white phoenix energy** and came up with the three Black List files. "I don't mean to interrupt," Martin stated, "but I don't think even you have access to Black List-"

Harold typed in a quick password, and a flashing UNLOCK displayed across the screen, and asked for voice verification. "Harold Tiberius Alexander, SB-01."

"Confirmed." The U-Watch spoke, and a file pertaining to Isaac opened up.

"Whoa," Martin muttered, "how does Isaac have a Black List file for himself? Not even Sousuke had one."

"He has one just by existing," Harold replied. "To be specific, our SB profiles are Black List."

"What does SB even mean?" Gerard asked.

"SB stands for_ '_spiritual beings'", Harold told Gerard, "which refers to Humans with spiritual powers. I am Spiritual Being-01 because I was the second one the Center found. Isaac is SB-5, and that is why he has a file under the Black List. It is rather discriminatory; it only classifies those of the highest level of spiritual power, listing all others as mediums or-"

"What does any of this have to do with Isaac dying?" Martin demanded angrily.

"Martin, calm down." Gerard told Martin and grabbed his arm.

"NO!" Martin jerked away his arm. "Isaac is feeling only god knows what about what just happened, and here is father who – instead of helping him – is giving us a little lecture that is going nowhere, and he is not telling us what thing is the reason for –"

"Actually, it is who." Harold interrupted. "But I will get to that later. Right now, we need to focus on the day Isaac's powers first awakened." He scrolled down to a censored area on the profile, and clicked on it to take away the censors, leaving a black spot in the middle of the paragraph.

"Even with all the Black List secrecy," Gerard muttered, "there is still a lot of stuff hidden."

"Not from me," Harold stated, and began reading: "After the awakening of Isaac Alexander's powers and the deaths of Dmitri Orloff and Fredrick Patterson, subject passed out due to exertion of his power." Harold skipped over the still-censored section, and continued reading. "Analysis of Isaac Alexander showed an anomaly with his soul: the awakening of his powers had split his soul in two, and the "new Isaac" was conscious while the other slept."

"Doctor Algernon D'evreux's analysis of Isaac's spiritual state," Harold continued, "confirmed that the existence of the two souls was damaging the both of them, and that if intervention was not made the two souls would destroy each other and Isaac Alexander would be dead within the year…"

He stopped at the end of the paragraph and let the information sink in. "…So you did something," Martin growled, "something that locked that Void thing away from Isaac's soul."

"They are both Isaac," Harold lamented, "and to tell the truth, there was literally no difference between the two of them in the beginning."

"So you chose to lock away the one that was conscious?" Gerard inquired.

"We chose the one who was aware of the split, because it identified him as not... the 'real Isaac'. Void took the memories of what happened that day with him, along with all the knowledge that he has about himself and Isaac that I and Algernon told him."

"So you locked one in chains for the other." Gerard stated accusingly.

"We had promised Void we would find a way to make him and Isaac whole again. Despite how long we searched, we found nothing. Matters of the soul are still not the Center's expertise; only magic and unique creatures."

"Algernon was the one who devised the seal," Harold stated, "he stated that it would stem Isaac's destruction for at least 20 years as long as nothing damaged it. …It is the only thing I have ever been thankful to that bastard for" Harold admitted. "But when Isaac was nearly killed by Sousuke last summer, the seal was weakened due to interacting with Sousuke's spirit energy. It was not enough to lead to the seal's erosion, but Isaac's trip to the alternate future Octavia made and the near-death experience he had there – along with a forced awakening of his power – led to a further breakdown of the seal."

Harold glared at Martin. "Martin, what Diana did to Isaac on Christmas Eve was the final push for Void to surface."

"So are you blaming my sister for this?" Martin accused.

"On a technical standpoint, yes," Harold admitted, "but Void would have remained chained in Isaac's subconscious had Isaac himself not let him out."

"…How long does Isaac have now?" Gerard asked.

Harold looked away. "It's been ten years since the seal was placed on him; the damage to both of their souls is at a halfway point…he has six months, at best."

"And there really isn't anything you can do?"

"…We have looked for everything humanely possible. We came up with nothing."

"…You said that it was a 'who' that caused all this. Who was that person?"

Harold looked at him. "A man who haunts my nightmares to this day." He quickly exited out of Isaac's profile, and selected another of the Black List profiles. Harold hesitated before typing in the password, a word that sent a cold shiver through Harold's body: **MURDERER.**

He pulled up the profile of the man who was once nearly the bane of the Center's entire existence. Of all of the paranormal threats that had ever assailed the Center, both paranormal and Black List world-breakers, this one man was considered the greatest threat of them all, the only Omega-level threat in the Center's databanks.

"His name is Oboro," Harold spoke. "He is Spiritual Being – 00."


	20. Coping and Hiding

Coping

"So that is it?"

"…Yes, that is pretty much all of it."

Colin Price had just finished explaining Isaac's situation to him at his home in Osaka. They were sitting in chairs across from one another and Tatsuki Miyabe, Colin's adoptive daughter and close friend of Isaac's, was sitting on a third chair at the end of the table.

Isaac glared at Tatsuki. "How long have you known about this?"

Tatsuki flinched. "Your "condition" has always been on a need-to-know basis," Colin interjected a hint of anger in his voice. "She only learnt about it very recently. By that, I mean after Void nearly went postal on Diana."

Isaac's eyes darkened. "And I was not informed of my Mr. Hyde because…?"

Colin averted his eyes. The reason was the same as why they kept the Center hidden from Isaac: to give him some semblance of a normal life. "Never mind," Isaac said, getting up, "I already know the answer: the same excuse you used when you broke the existence of this world to me."

"Isaac, don't you go blow a fuse like last time!"

"Colin, I am too far beyond that point to even think about blowing a fuse." He took a deep breath. "I actually find this one to be a mercy, actually. I won't have to worry about how my life will play out much longer."

Tatsuki gasped. Isaac was…fine with his impending demise? "Isaac, I don't think you realize what this means," Tatsuki said angrily. She got up and walked towards him. Tatsuki was much shorter than Isaac, but she projected an aura of authority whenever something pushed her to her limits. "When your die, it will not be as simple as you just dropping dead. Your souls will **self-destruct, **destroying everything you are, ever were, and could ever be! You are accepting that your condition – your "soul suicide" – will consign you to oblivion!"

Her voice cracked in sadness. She had lost her entire family to her brother's rampage, and she had to personally send him to the underworld – twice. She did not want to lose any of her friends who were among the living.

"I realize that perfectly," Isaac said with a resigned tone in his voice. "If that is what is going to be left of my life…Now that I know the truth, I will finally be able to make my own choices on what to do with what is left."

Tatsuki could hear it in not just his words, but also in his fragmented soul – he had completely given up on life. And after how hopeful he sounded when he told her what he saw in that one future…

Tatsuki broke down, and she cried softly into Isaac's chest, who gave her a re-assuring hug. Colin looked on at the scene solemnly. He understood what Isaac meant: Olivia and Harold had always decided on what their son should know about himself and his family, even if it was out of a necessity to protect him until he was ready. He stood up and went to the Miyabe's library.

From the top shelf, he picked up an old book and read through it again. _There is no other way to save him but this, _he thought to himself, _but there is no way Harold or Olivia, or myself would choose to do it. We would not be able to call ourselves Isaac's parents or godparent if we did so._

"You do not even have a picture of the guy?!"

"He was very private. Anyone who tried to take his picture for the sake of organizations like the CSIS, MI6, or any of the major intelligence organizations in the world end up dead…even Center agents."

Oboro's file could be described as a blank. No picture, little information on him except for his abilities , contracts he was known to have taken, and the one incident where the Center came into direct conflict with him and a number to the casualties.

The number of active field agents at any given time is five hundred. Oboro had killed 150 of them.

"No, we do not," Harold told Martin. "Besides, I would prefer not to look at his face ever again."

"What's with the guy's kill count," Martin asked. "The Center usually has five hundred agents at any one time; how could this guy kill so many agents when it was one incident?"

"That 'one incident' is one of the few times the Center has ever been at war, and even that was back when the Center was more ruthless and under Algernon's command. There was an organization that was operating under the Center's radar for five years, capturing monsters with the intent of turning them into biological weapons to be sold to the highest bidder."

"That sounds like the kind of situation the Center would want to stop," Gerard observed.

"It is one of the reasons why the Center exists," Harold explained, "to protect civilians from those monsters, but also to protect those same paranormal beings from being turned into weapons by the wrong people. In many ways, Humans are worse monsters than the paranormal beings the Center captures. You know what to expect with monsters – Humans are crazy and unpredictable."

"Why are you going off on tangents," Martin said impatiently, "just get to the point."

"The point is that Oboro was their main hired gun to capture these monsters. Over those five years, he has often killed Center agents he found himself in competition with for certain creatures. Things came to a head when they actually found a buyer on the black market. Me, Colin and Olivia were sent in to investigate, and to stop the meeting if possible…"

"Olivia was carrying Isaac at the time," Harold confessed.

"Why did you take such a risk," Gerard demanded, "you put your unborn child at great risk when you-"

"Olivia was only two weeks pregnant at the time, and she did not know…We did not know." Harold sat down, sounding defeated.

"But Oboro found you guys, didn't he?" Martin guessed.

"…There were nine other agents with us at the time…" Gerard noticed Harold's hand moving towards his heart, and he gripped his shirt in that area. "…None of them made it out with us. I was almost killed while saving Olivia, but Colin managed to get the both of us out of there."

Gerard thought he heard a bit of a lie in his voice, but what he could have been hiding in comparison to what he said was too ludicrous in Gerard's mind. So he probed a bit. "The way you are thinking back on it makes it seem like you died with them."

Harold's eyes darkened, and he glared at Gerard. "A part of all of us died that day," he said, his voice tinged with anger. "Those agents were sent to back us up in case things got bad, but it went from bad to worse."

"Why did Algernon send you into such a lion's nest?"

"Not a lion's nest. Algernon sent us into Hell. Two of them were killed by the monsters those madmen let loose; Oboro slaughtered the rest when he caught up to us just before we made our escape…"

Harold sighed. "But you don't need to know what happened next. My close call with death awakened my powers, and the residual energy from Oboro's attack on Olivia had a negative effect on Isaac's soul."

"But-" Martin interjected.

"That is all you need to know," Harold repeated. "That, and the fact me and Ryuto Miyabe sent Oboro to the Afterlife for what he did."

With that, Harold left the room, and left the Center for his house through a portal. He walked into his room, hung up his trench coat and stood in front of a full-body mirror. The haunting memories came back. "Algernon sent us into Hell…to kill me."

He placed his hand over his heart.

"And he succeeded."


	21. Revelations in the Dark

**I do not own Martin Mystery. **

**The characters Colin Price, Arisawa Tatsuki and Algernon D'evreaux are all characters of The Kage Tenshi's "The Red Monarch", and belong to her.**

* * *

Revelations

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN KEEP QUIET ABOUT IT?!"

"Son, calm down."

M.O.M sighed. She had expected this kind of reaction from Martin. Despite how much it seems like he doesn't take things seriously, whenever it involves someone close to him, there is usually no room for jokes. "Isaac's condition has always been on a need-to-know basis," she explained to Martin. "You and your father saw it up close and personal, so you two needed to know. Diana, on the other hand, and anyone else in the Center not already aware of it do not need to know."

"THAT'S BULLSHIT!"

M.O.M's eyes widened. But in this case, Martin was uncharacteristically angry. "Son, watch that language of yours!"

She gritted her teeth. "Martin, it is necessary! When Algernon's regime was ousted, I made a promise to myself to protect those people that Algernon hurt, and that includes Harold and his son!"

Martin restrained himself. Gerard could see the rage visible on his son's face. He looked at M.O.M. "It's about discrimination, isn't it?"

M.O.M remained silent. Gerard decided to continue. "From what I've heard, very bad things happened to people like your son during your predecessor's reign because of prejudices against them, and you are keeping it all secret because you are afraid some of your current agents might feel the same way about them as people in the past did."

M.O.M answered. "You couldn't be more right. People like Isaac were viewed as nothing more than monsters by the Center under Algernon. People fear what they do not understand, and that fear leads to discrimination, and eventually hate. I want to protect my son – and any other people like him – from that discrimination. Sousuke was exposed to that discrimination since he was a child…" M.O.M's voice cracked, "it turned him into a monster, and made him open to being manipulated by Algernon."

"…You do not know that," Martin whispered, "things are different now. I mean, maybe people won't think Isaac is some kind of monster."

"…Martin, that is exactly what Sergei felt."

Martin's eyes widened, in shock and confusion.

"What did you say?"

Sergej's words echoed through Martin's head.

_"The Center was made to imprison monsters, yet it lets monsters roam free in Human society! I'll destroy the Center, and use my power to hunt down and kill them all!"_

The last time Martin saw Sergej, the latter had used various magical rituals to turn into a dark fae of great magical power. Martin had thought those were ravings, a product of Sergej's mind being corrupted by magical energy. But with what he knew now…

"You mean he found out about people like Isaac?"

"I did not know either until I did some digging," M.O.M explained. "Organizations like Octavia's Creature Intelligence Hybrid Laboratories do not pop up out of nowhere. From what I found at the base where her creature was made, there were files indicating that Octavia came into contact with Sergej at one point in the past – specifically, just days before he disappeared."

"Why didn't you tell us," Martin demanded.

"Because I believed it was irrelevant, since you already stopped Sergej in the past. I also said nothing because Octavia effectively disclosed everything to Sergej – specifically about Tatsuki, and my husband and son. I did not want that information getting out, and because it also gave me another possible reason why Octavia made that monster in the first place."

"After it was done with you," Martin surmised, "she was going to send it after your family and Tatsuki."

M.O.M gave a strange knowing smile. "I know now it would not have worked," the smile vanished, "but the motive is what matters. If Sergej could go rogue after learning that truth, then it confirmed my fears: despite having rid the Center of Algernon, there would still be those who would fear and hate people like my family and Tatsuki if they learnt the truth."

"But why…" Martin asked, "Why are you keeping this all a secret from Diana? She loves Isaac; she deserves to know more than anybody."

M.O.M gave Isaac a crest-fallen look. "That is the problem. She does love my son, but I don't know how she would react…"

"To what!? Diana's good friends with Tatsuki; she'd understand that!"

"It is not just that, Martin. I am also referring to Void, and the deadline on Isaac's life. Isaac is very different from Tatsuki, and Void is proof of that. As for Isaac's life…How would you feel if you found out someone close to you had only a set amount of time left to live? What would you do? I know how…" M.O.M restrained herself, and she let the sentence finish in her head.

_I know how Diana and her mother reacted when they found out Marcus died. How could I not know? I was watching from the car when the news was broken to them. I know how much anger and pain they felt when they heard the center of their lives died._

_I had to know for one simple reason…_

She forced the thought aside. "I know how it feels when you learn a person you love is going to die," she spoke, tears streaming down her face, "and you know exactly when and how it will happen. How do you think Diana would react to hearing that?"

Martin's eyes narrowed. "I know what my sister would do: she would to find a way to save Isaac's life. If she could not do that, she would at least try to make those last days the happiest of Isaac's life. It's what I'd do for her, and I wish I could do the same for Isaac, but…"

M.O.M closed her eyes, and wiped the tears away. "It's not just your decision to not tell Diana," Gerard realized, "Isaac told you to not tell her anything, didn't he?"

She looked at Gerard. "That is exactly what he said."

The door behind Martin and Gerard beeped, and opened. Isaac stood there in the open door, and walked in. "I've already moved everything to Tatsuki's home in Osaka," he told his mother.

"Are you sure you do not want to say goodbye to Diana," M.O.M asked him.

Isaac's eyes softened, as he walked over to M.O.M. "I already left something behind for her," he stated, "so I do not need to say goodbye. Besides, if I tried to tell her face to face…"

M.O.M looked back at Gerard and Martin, who left wordlessly, knowing that mother and son wanted a moment alone.

"Isaac," she said, placing a gentle hand on her son's shoulder, "you don't have to hide anything from me. Colin told me that you had apparently resigned yourself to your fate, but I know that you must have some reservations."

Isaac looked solemnly at his mother. "…If I told her everything, she would never let go. She would try any means to save me, and I know that she would not give a damn if it destroyed her in the process. She did that once for her family before…" He gently brushed his mother's arm aside. "I will not drag Diana into any of this."

"…We found a way to save you, Isaac," M.O.M finally confessed.*******

Isaac's eyes widened in hope…but that hope faded when he registered the tone in M.O.M's voice. "But it would have taken time…Time that I do not have left."

"I'm sorry," Olivia pleaded, a single tear streaming down her face. "If we had only told you sooner…"

"…But it will mean nothing if we do not try it."

Olivia looked at her son. There was determination in his eyes. "I accept that I am going to die in six months. Now that I know everything about myself, I will be able to make my own choices about how I will live out the rest of my life. That includes trying to fix my soul to avert it."

"But there are problems," Olivia explained. "When Void and your powers were still sealed away, the method would have been safe to use, and you would have the pre-requisite time to make it work. But with both your souls actively clashing now that the seal is gone, it will be very dangerous. Not only could it not work now, but it could even destroy you prematurely if something goes wrong."

"Every mission we go on involves us putting our lives – our Humanity on the line to protect others. I see no reason why I should not try this method because it might endanger my life."

"Does Colin know about this?" Isaac asked.

"No," Olivia replied, "only your father and I know so far. Preparing it is why I negotiated for you to remain at Torrington for those remaining two weeks – that is the amount that would be left to prepare it once you returned to Torrington. We were planning to tell you, Colin, and Tatsuki about it once the preparations were made."

"After that, how long would it have taken?"

"That is the problem: the process was meant to cause two souls – that were originally one but became divided – to fuse together into one soul once more. From what Harold found, it usually takes six months, but considering that is how much time you have left **at the most, **it will be…"

"Four months."

"What?" M.O.M asked incredulously.

"That is the time I will do it in. Three months at best, four at the most."

"But the risks I mentioned,"  
M.O.M reminded him. "This is usually done when a person is under a seal. Even with a normal soul, trying to rush things could cause the mutual destruction of both souls."

"But my soul is not normal," Isaac reminded her, "So it could be done. Even if I have to drag Void kicking and screaming into it…I will make the two of us whole again."

M.O.M stared wide-eyed at her son, but her expression eventually settled into a solemn smile. _It seems there is no talking him out of it._

"I guess this settles things," M.O.M stated. "I'll go tell your father we are going to go through with it, and then he'll tell Colin tomorrow."

"…Thank you, Mother." Isaac then left the office.

Olivia walked over to the portrait on a nearby wall, if only to have something to look at. "If anyone is listening," she spoke to no one in particular, "I suggest you come out right now."

The sound of footsteps and a staff on the floor echoed in reply. "Really? You still have not told him about Him?"

Olivia glared back at Hades, Lord of the Underworld. "Isaac does not need to know about that."

Hades smiled sarcastically. "Of course not. You give him hope that he will be able to come out of his current debacle alive, leaving out the small detail that he's going to be murdered, anyway."

"You do not know when it is going to happen," she protested, "because it is only a possibility so long as Oboro is chained up in Tartarus. As long as he is still down there, Isaac is safe."

"That is true," Hades mentioned. "As I told your husband, it is almost as if someone is biding their time for something…" He smiled coldly. "…Such as your son fixing his soul."

Olivia's eyes widened in horror; Hades did not know, but now she knew who was behind it all. Only two other men knew of **_that_**, and it could have been that man in particular who could plan things out so meticulously…Who could have known about the means to save Isaac before anyone else did. "But why…?"

Hades' eyes darkened. "You do not remember," he told her, "but that boy – not yours, the other one," referring off-handedly to Martin, "will be at the center of it all."

"Keep. Vigilant," Hades warned her. "Some men are willing to tear down Creation itself if it means achieving their petty desires…"

Olivia spun around on her heels, and Hades was gone.

* * *

*phew* I think this is the longest chapter I have posted in a while, and I just wrote it up today to boot. Please read and review.

***** **Harold having found a way to save Isaac is not out of nowhere. I'm in the process of re-writing "Mission to Transylvania", and that event will play out in that story.


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